Click to play videoNew Delhi:Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will take the final decision on whether work to raise the Sardar Sarovar dam’s height should be stopped or not.
Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz on Saturday recommended to the Prime Minister that work be stopped after a meeting of the review committee of the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) failed to reach a decision in Delhi.
The six-member committee was split equally. The BJP chief ministers of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan were against stopping work at the dam, which they said was "Gujarat's lifeline".
Soz, Environment Minister A Raja and Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh opposed them and tabled a resolution which recommended that work be suspended till affected people are rehabilitated.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi lashed out at the Central government and accused it of giving in to the demands of Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), which is protesting in Delhi against raising the dam height.
Modi said he would go on a 51-hour fast at Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad from Sunday against the Centre. The NBA’s office in Vadodara was ransacked and pro-dam agitators broke furniture and tried to set the office ablaze.
Decide soon: Medha tells PM
NBA leader Medha Patkar, who is in a critical condition in a Delhi hospital, announced that she would continue her 16-day-old hunger strike and urged the Prime Minister to take a decision soon.
Patkar is surviving on glucose and lemon juice after her arrest 10 days ago. On Friday, her blood pressure and glucose levels dipped further.
"We will wait and watch for the Prime Minister’s decision, hoping that it would not breach the trust that the Supreme Court has placed in his position and stature,” said Patkar.
More protestors at Jantar Mantar
On Friday, seven more people joined the NBA’s protest against the Sardar Sarovar Dam. The condition of Jamsingh Nargave and Bhagwati Patidar, two activists who are on a hunger strike, is critical.
After the three began their strike, a Group of Ministers visited the Narmada Valley and submitted a report to the Prime Minister.
There was no "positive response" from the PMO, which prompted the other seven to also join the strike.
"We had written to the PMO under the Right to Infromation Act two days ago. Today, we got a letter from them saying they had forwarded our request to the Ministry of Water Resources for necessary action. How long are we supposed to wait," environmentalist Shekhar Singh told reporters here.
Right to Information activist and Magsaysay awardee Aruna Roy demanded that all official documents related to Sardar Sarovar Project be made public.
"In the Common Minimum Programme, the United Progressive Alliance had promised that they would encourage more effective systems of relief and rehabilitation for tribals. Then why are they not listening to these people. It proves that their assurances are all a big mockery," she said.
Narmada Bachao Andolan: A recap
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 The government claims the multi-purpose project will irrigate more than 1.8 million hectares - most of it in drought prone areas like - Kutch and Saurashtra. |
| But Sardar Sarovar spells doom for close to three lakh twenty thousand people, mostly tribals who'll get displaced. The state government had promised to rehabilitate these people, but it's failed to do so. And despite that, the height of the dam has been increased several times in recent years. |
| In February 1999, the Supreme Court gave the go ahead for the dam's height to be raised to 88 metres from the initial 80. |
| In October 2000 again, in a 2 to 1 majority judgement in the Supreme Court, the government was allowed to construct the dam upto 90 metres. |
| Then in May 2002, the Narmada Control Authority approved increasing the height of the dam by another five metres. |
| And a couple of years later, in March 2004, the authority allowed another raise - this time to 110metres. |
| Now the most recent move in March 2006, the Narmada Control Authority gave clearance for the height of the dam to be increased from 110.64 metres to 121.92. |
| It was after this last judgement that protestors gathered in the capital and activist Medha Patkar went on an indefinite hunger. |
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