Open court verdict in Narmada valley: How can submergence decrease when dam height increases?

By A Representative
In a major fillip to the Narmada Bachao Andolan's (NBA's) campaign against the Gujarat government going ahead with raising the height of the Narmada dam from 122 to 139 metres, a high-profile people's tribunal consisting of four retired justices of various high courts have called upon the Supreme Court and the Government of India to “urgently review” the status of displacement, submergence and rehabilitation of the Narmada dam oustees before allowing the dam construction to continue.
Following a hearing organized by prominent citizens at Rajghat in Badwani town in Madhya Pradesh, in their “interim verdict”, pronounced in before about 10,000 oustees of the Narmada dam, the panel of four retired judges declared that there were “gross violations” of the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal Award and judgments of the Supreme Court in allowing the dam construction to continue.
Those who organized the hearing included Justice Rajinder Sacher (retired Chief Justice, Delhi High Court]; Syeda Hameed (former member, Planning Commission); Sagar Sarhadi (senior film maker), Prof Anil Sadgopal (eminent educationalist), Ramdas Bhatkal (founder, Popular Prakashan, Mumbai and litterateur) and Anand Patwardhan (acclaimed film maker).

Speaking at the proceedings of the people's tribunal, retires justices PC Jain (Rajasthan High Court), Nag Mohan Das (Karnataka High Court), VD Gyani (Madhya Pradesh High Court) and NK Mody (Madhya Pradesh High Court) said they were “gravely concerned” over the displacement of about 2.5 lakh people due to the completion of the dam.
Calling it a “violation of the constitutional right to life, destruction of livelihood, and wiping out of an entire culture and civilization”, the four ex-judge penal said, “The dam work and installation of gates should not proceed in the present circumstances of clear evidence of multiple violations”, adding, “The authorities have miserably failed to comply with the provisions of the award and the apex court orders and have committed serious dereliction of legal obligations.”

Reading out the operative part of their preliminary verdict, Justice Jain said, “The official claims of no additional submergence due to the current dam work is clearly unlawful and also unbelievable, since when the dam is being completed with the same original height, there is no reason why the submergence area would not increase.”
Basing its observation on the testimony of about 35 oustees, the panel said, “The Judgement of the Supreme Court dated 18/10/2000 and 15/3/2005 as well as several orders of the Grievance Redressal Authorities (GRAs). Justice Jain added, the government must await the report of Justice Jha Commission of Inquiry into Corruption in resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) before any further work is undertaken.
The justices urged the Social Justice Bench of the Supreme Court to review its decisions and hearings in the light of the “overwhelming evidence” of legal violations and well as the “obviously flawed full rehabilitation” reports of the project authorities.
Those gave their testimonies included representatives of the adivasis from the hilly and plain areas, farmers who have been entangled in the fake registries scam, landless oustees, fish workers, potters, boatmen, small traders etc from Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat.
Speaking on the occasion, NBA leader Medha Patkar said there were “massive violations of the rights of the gram sabhas in the constitutionally protected scheduled adivasi areas”, adding, there was an urgent need to review the “inhuman pauperization of 2.5 lakh people for the benefits of corporates...” Others who spoke on the occasion included members of an earlier fact finding team – Soumya Dutta, Hannan Mollah, Annie Raja, Dr Sunilam, Raj Kchroo and Benoy Vishwam.
Senior officials of the Central and State governments of the three states, including the chairperson of the Narmada Control Authority, resettlement and rehablitation sub-groups and grievances redressal authorities of the three states, as also those who are implementing the Sardar Sarovar Project in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, were invited, but they did not turn up.

Comments

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Echoes of Vietnam and Chile: The devastating cost of the I-A Axis in Iran

By Ram Puniyani The recent joint military actions by Israel and the United States against Iran have been devastating. Like all wars, this conflict is brutal to its core, leaving a trail of human suffering in its wake. The stated pretext for this aggression—the brutality of the Ayatollah Khamenei regime and its nuclear ambitions—clashes sharply with the reality of the diplomatic landscape. Iran had expressed a willingness to remain at the negotiating table, signaling a readiness to concede points emerging from dialogue.

India’s green energy push faces talent crunch amidst record growth at 16% CAGR

By Jag Jivan* A new study by a top consulting firm has found that India’s cleantech sector is entering a decisive growth phase, with strong policy backing, record capacity additions and surging investor interest, but facing mounting pressure on talent supply and rising compensation costs .

Search This Blog