How often we rattle off these lines and how facilely. And how we follow them only in the breach.
Much has been made of the Sardar Sarovar Project and its role as the lifeline of Gujarat. The promises have kept thirsty farmers and villagers waiting for forty years. The dream and the dream merchants tales continue – sometimes it is the central government that is “stopping the progress of Gujarat out of jealousy”; sometimes it is pseudo secularists who, as I mentioned in an earlier column, are Gujarat Virodhis who tell lies to the people of Gujarat. Then it is something else. All to explain away the dream remaining a dream… or becoming a nightmare?
How many of us who lap up these “facts” that are regularly doled out to us through full page ads or hoardings have tried to go beyond the rhetoric?
Thankfully, and at last, some. A Peoples’ Investigation Committee made up of eminent organizations, individuals and with Justice Karia as its Chair, has now come up with undisputable facts about how this lifeline has been used to pull wool over the eyes of the people of this State. And even more surprising, the committee is made up of many people who are avowed and vocal Pro-Sardar Sarovar.
Some truths:
Over the last 7 years, bad construction and maintenance have lead to many breaches in the canal, causing devastation to lakhs of farmers. In 2002, there were 8 breaches; in ’03, three; in ’04 the breach in Pavi Jetpur of Vadodara district left 18 villages marooned; last year the 21 meter breach in Kadi taluka of Mehsana district affected 16 villages. Little or no compensation has been paid for any of this to the now destroyed families; the water completely destroyed the rich top soil of their farms leaving the land with no possibility of tilling.
In the original project, the water distribution plan envisaged gravity flow pumping from two canals, the Saurashtra and Kutchch branch canals. Instead of following this cost effective plan, today huge weightage is given to non economical electricity and pipeline based distribution. No explanation is given for the wastage of public funds. Nor for the widely varying tarifs being charged to farmers and various industries.
In spite of spending Rs 28000 crores, only 10% of the total command area to be covered by canals has actually been built. This, in a scenario where there were no legal hurdles to the building going according to plan.
For the villagers of Maliya Miyana, Halvad, Patdi and Dhrangadhra the fraud has been worse. They were promised Narmada water, and for two years the government has been collecting from them the charges for pumps to be bought, and the rate called the piyat. The farmers additionally have spent lakhs to create the pipelines to take the water to their individual farms, and many have disconnected their electricity connections, taken originally to water their fields through tube wells. Today not only have they gotten no water but the government has posted SRP units to stop them “stealing” water. Their crops lie in ruins as the money lenders close in and suicide becomes an attractive option for many.
And then there are the thousands of Agariyas, the salt workers of the Little Rann of Kutchch eking out a living at the best of times. Near the end of their cultivation cycle, already presold to the shahukar, mismanaged water supply flooded their fields destroying crores worth of salt, and their futures. Till today they have received no compensation.
As far as the work on the sub canals is concerned, the web of deceit gets thicker. Of the 3 lakh hectors of land that was planned to be irrigated from the main canal, only 74000 hectares have been irrigated. 50,000 kilometres of canals and sub canals still remain on paper. And what else? We shall soon find out, once the committee’s reports are out.
Satyoma Asat Gamaya. Jyotirma Tamaso Gamaya.
