Ahead of Gujarat elections, Madhya Pradesh's top Narmada reservoirs were depleted to "appease" voters

Modi atop Narmada dam on September 17

Strongly arguing as to how the Narmada dam was filled up ahead of the Gujarat assembly elections, which took place in mid-December 2017, senior farmers' leader Sagar Rabari of Khedut Samaj – Gujarat (KSG) has said, quoting official data, that on July 1, the water level in the 138.68 metre dam was at 114.97 metres, but on October 1, it was allowed to reach 130.74 metres, all to whip up sentiments of people around a river considered sacred by people.
"In the the beginning of monsoon, on July 31, the water level reached 120.69 metres, an increase of 5.72 metres in a month", said Rabari, adding, "It increased to 124.43 metres on August 31, and with the addition of September rain water, it reached 130.59 metres on October 1, but after that it was allowed to decline to provide as much waters to farmers as possible, even if they don't need it."
"In October-end, the water level was 128.69 metres, 1.9 meter lower than overall level, and on November 30, it further fell to 124.22 metres", Rabari said in a statement, alleging, Narmada waters were being "grossly and utterly misused", adding, "On November 31, the water levels fell to 118.33 metres, a decline of 5.89 metres, and on December 12, when the campaign officially ended, the water level at the dam site fell to 115.95 metres."
"During the two-and-a-half months of electioneering, SSNNL generously but altogether unnecessarily released water from the dam for ‘inaugurations’ of schemes and vote catching ploys. Not surprisingly, the water level fell from 130.59 to 115.95 meters, i.e. the ruling party and the SSNNL together wasted 14.64 meters of precious water, snatching it from the people of Gujarat", the farmers' leader alleged.
"An important fact to note here is that September, October and November are officially monsoon months. Agriculture, the sector that is the biggest beneficiary of the water, does not utilise much water during these months", Rabari said, adding, "Hence our query – where did the water vanish?"
Giving data of the amount of water allowed to be depleted after the Gujarat polls, Rabari said, "On December 1, the dam had 1946 million cubic metres (MCM), but on January 12, 2018, a month later, it got reduced to 638 MCM, and further to 328 MCM on January 25, when the water level in the dam reached 113.69 metres."
He added, "The authorities may not be willing to accept people’s demand of detailed account of water they misused but the farmers are determined to force them to reveal the account or provide them water that has been misused to woo voters."
Meanwhile, quoting the Daily Status Reports of the Narmada Control Authority (NCA), the advocacy group, South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), has said that the inflow into the Narmada dam "suddenly jumped" from 495 cumecs (Cubic Meters per second) on September 12, to 2384 cumecs on September 16, in anticipation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi visiting the dam on his birthday, September 17.
Meanwhile, it added, Madhya Pradesh depleted its water storage so that the Narmada dam looked full on September 17. "The increased inflow into the Narmada dam was made possible only by increased outflow from upstream Madhya Pradesh dams like Indira Sagar Project (ISP) on Narmada. ISP, incidentally is India’s largest reservoir in terms of storage capacity."
Thus, "ISP's storage level, which was already very low (about 33%) on September 11 with monsoon almost coming to close, was depleted by further 450 MCM from September 11 to September 16, while the Narmada dam water level rose by 750 MCM during the same period. All this, so that water level at the Narmada could look more respectable on September 17", SANDRP said.

Comments

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Whither Jeffrey Sachs-supported research project which 'created' Gujarat model of development for Modi?

Even as Donald Trump was swearing-in as US President, a friend forwarded to me a YouTube video in which veteran world renowned economist Prof Jeffrey Sachs participated and sought an answer as to why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was "afraid to fly" despite being invited to Donald Trump's swearing in ceremony. This took my memory to 2003, when I -- as representative of the Times of India -- had a short tet-a-tat along with a couple of other reporters with Sachs in the chief minister's office in Gandhinagar.

No to free thought? How Gujarat's private universities are cowing down their students

"Don't protest"—that's the message private universities across Gujarat seem to be conveying to their students. A senior professor told me that students at the university where he teaches are required to sign an undertaking promising not to engage in protests. "They simply sign the undertaking and hand it over to the university authorities," he said.

Busy taking books to the needy, this rationalist exposes miracles in a superstition-infested Gujarat society

I knew his name as a campaigner against the sheer wastage of the large amounts of ghee brought by devotees from across India for a major religious ceremony conducted every year in Rupal village, near Gandhinagar, the Gujarat capital, on the ninth day of Navratri. I had seen him at several places during my visits to different NGO meetings as well as some media conferences.

'Potentially lethal, carcinogenic': Global NGO questions India refusing to ban white asbestos

Associated with the Fight Inequality Alliance, a global movement that began in 2016 to "counter the concentration of power and wealth among a small elite", claiming to have members in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, the Philippines, and Denmark, the advocacy group Confront Power appears all set to intensify its campaign against India as "the world’s largest asbestos importer".

To be or not to be Sattvik: Different communities' differing notions of purity and fasting

This is a continuation of my last blog on Sattvik food. When talking about Sattvik, there is a tendency to overlook what it may mean to different sections of people around the world. First, let me redefine Sattvik: it means having a "serene, balanced, and harmonious mind or attitude." Derived from the Sanskrit word sattva, it variously means "pure, essence, nature, vital, energy, clean, conscious, strong, courage, true, honest, and wise." How do people achieve this so-called purity? Among Gujarati Hindus, especially those from the so-called upper castes who are vegetarians, one common way is fasting. On fasting days, such as agiyarash —the 11th day of the lunar cycle in the Vedic calendar—my close relatives fast but consume milk, fruit juices, mangoes, grapes, bananas, almonds, pistachios, and potato-based foods, including fried items. Another significant fasting period is adhik maas. During this time, many of my relatives "fast" by eating only a single me...

Beyond the Sattvik plate: Prof Anil Gupta's take on food, ethics, and sustainability

I was pleasantly surprised to receive a rather lengthy comment (I don't want to call it a rejoinder) on my blog post about the Sattvik Food Festival, held near the Sola Temple in Ahmedabad late last year. It came from no less a person than Anil Gupta, Professor Emeritus at the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), under whose guidance this annual event was held.

Would Gujarat Governor, govt 'open up' their premises for NGOs? Activists apprehensive

Soon after I uploaded my blog about the Gujarat Governor possibly softening his stance on NGOs—evidenced by allowing a fisherfolk association to address the media at a venue controlled by the Raj Bhawan about India’s alleged failure to repatriate fishermen from Pakistani prisons—one of the media conference organizers called me. He expressed concern that my blog might harm their efforts to secure permission to hold meetings on state premises.

Sattvik Food Festival: Shouldn't one question notion of purity, cultural exclusion in food choices?

Recently, I visited the Sattvik Food Festival, an annual event in Ahmedabad organized by Anil Gupta, professor emeritus at the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A). I have known Prof. Gupta since 1993, when I sought an appointment to meet him a few months after joining The Times of India in Ahmedabad—one reason why I have always been interested in the activities he is involved in.

Search This Blog