Narmada dam oustees have been half-heartedly compensated. Can Sardar Sarovar Project be called 'successful'?

NBA leader Medha Patkar (right)

Counterview Desk

Statement by Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA):

In all, in Madhya Pradesh 22,822 hectares of land has been submerged, out of which 7,883 hectares is prime fertile agricultural land. This has displace 32,679 families (which is of a magnitude unprecedented in human history). Of these 15,946 families displaced have been half-heartedly compensated. Can, even after all this, the Sardar Sarovar Project, be called 'successful'?
In March 2017 the Narmada Control Authority in its annual report declared completion of Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) work. Then how come between June 2017 and August 2017, the state of Madhya Pradesh declared in Rs 900 crore package for compensating the displaced?
According to the 8 February 2017 order of the Supreme Court, families who were refused 5 acres of land were ordered Rs 60 lakh in compensation, and families duped in the rehabilitation scam (ranging in crores) were to be paid Rs. 15 lakh compensation and relief. While 734 families received the Rs 60 lakh package, hundreds of families still remain.
According to Madhya Pradesh government records only 993 families out of 1,358 have been compensated till now. Hundreds of names in the eligibility list of Rs 5.80 lakh package are fake. According to orders of the Supreme Court, as also the order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court dated 28 November 2017 given to the Grievance Redressal Authority, all facilities were to be provided in the rehabilitation sites, but not even 1% of that is fulfilled.
By 31 April 2018 all rehabilitation sites and displaced people are be provided with adequate water and drinking water but today, when this destructive project has caused a drought, where will that water come from? Promises of water harvesting, earthquake monitoring and rehabilitation of temples and religious sites still remain incomplete. And still the project was shown to be complete with 100% rehabilitation in court and was forcibly inaugurated on the birthday of Narendra Modi.
Today, there are plans to interlink Narmada with Kshipra, Gambhir, Kali, Sindhu, Mahi and Parvati rivers. There are declarations that 70 cities and 300 villages in Malwa will be given water from Narmada. Industries all across have been relentlessly pumping water from Narmada for industrial output.
Even after inauguration, in Gujarat only 6 lakh hectares out of the promised 18 lakh hectares are officially supposed to be receiving irrigation waters from the Sardar Sarovar Project. Truth is, not even 3 lakh hectares are getting that benefit. With the electricity plant shut, Madhya Pradesh can't even receive 50% of the electricity it was allocated.

Comments

Covishield controversy: How India ignored a warning voice during the pandemic

Dr Amitav Banerjee, MD * It is a matter of pride for us that a person of Indian origin, presently Director of National Institute of Health, USA, is poised to take over one of the most powerful roles in public health. Professor Jay Bhattacharya, an Indian origin physician and a health economist, from Stanford University, USA, will be assuming the appointment of acting head of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), USA. Bhattacharya would be leading two apex institutions in the field of public health which not only shape American health policies but act as bellwether globally.

Growth without justice: The politics of wealth and the economics of hunger

By Vikas Meshram* In modern history, few periods have displayed such a grotesque and contradictory picture of wealth as the present. On one side, a handful of individuals accumulate in a single year more wealth than the annual income of entire nations. On the other, nearly every fourth person in the world goes to bed hungry or half-fed.

Thali, COVID and academic credibility: All about the 2020 'pseudoscientific' Galgotias paper

By Jag Jivan The first page image of the paper "Corona Virus Killed by Sound Vibrations Produced by Thali or Ghanti: A Potential Hypothesis" published in the Journal of Molecular Pharmaceuticals and Regulatory Affairs , Vol. 2, Issue 2 (2020), has gone viral on social media in the wake of the controversy surrounding a Chinese robot presented by the Galgotias University as its original product at the just-concluded AI summit in Delhi . The resurfacing of the 2020 publication, authored by Dharmendra Kumar , Galgotias University, has reignited debate over academic standards and scientific credibility.

The 'glass cliff' at Galgotias: How a university’s AI crisis became a gendered blame game

By Mohd. Ziyaullah Khan* “She was not aware of the technical origins of the product and in her enthusiasm of being on camera, gave factually incorrect information.” These were the words used in the official press release by Galgotias University following the controversy at the AI Impact Summit in Delhi. The statement came across as defensive, petty, and deeply insensitive.

'Serious violation of international law': US pressure on Mexico to stop oil shipments to Cuba

By Vijay Prashad In January 2026, US President Donald Trump declared Cuba to be an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US security—a designation that allows the United States government to use sweeping economic restrictions traditionally reserved for national security adversaries. The US blockade against Cuba began in the 1960s, right after the Cuban Revolution of 1959 but has tightened over the years. Without any mandate from the United Nations Security Council—which permits sanctions under strict conditions—the United States has operated an illegal, unilateral blockade that tries to force countries from around the world to stop doing basic commerce with Cuba. The new restrictions focus on oil. The United States government has threatened tariffs and sanctions on any country that sells or transports oil to Cuba.

When grief becomes grace: Kerala's quiet revolution in organ donation

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Kerala is an important model for understanding India's diversity precisely because the religious and cultural plurality it has witnessed over centuries brought together traditions and good practices from across the world. Kerala had India's first communist government, was the first state where a duly elected government was dismissed, and remains the first state to achieve near-total literacy. It is also a land where Christianity and Islam took root before they spread to Europe and other parts of the world. Kerala has deep historic rationalist and secular traditions.

When a lake becomes real estate: The mismanagement of Hyderabad’s waterbodies

By Dr Mansee Bal Bhargava* Misunderstood, misinterpreted and misguided governance and management of urban lakes in India —illustrated here through Hyderabad —demands urgent attention from Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), the political establishment, the judiciary, the builder–developer lobby, and most importantly, the citizens of Hyderabad. Fundamental misconceptions about urban lakes have shaped policies and practices that systematically misuse, abuse and ultimately erase them—often in the name of urban development.

Activists warn of gendered impact of VB-GRAMG Act, seek return to MGNREGA framework

By A Representative The All-India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA), along with the Agrarian Alliance and Workers’ Forum of the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), has written to President Droupadi Murmu urging her to call upon Parliament to repeal the newly enacted Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025 (VB-GRAMG Act) and restore and strengthen the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

Stray dogs, an epsilon (ϵ) problem: Of child labour, and the art of misplaced priorities

By Bhaskaran Raman The Greek alphabet ϵ (epsilon) is used in maths and science to denote a quantity which is not zero, but extremely small *** Since the Supreme Court's interim order on the issue of stray dogs came out on 07 Nov 2025, there have been a range of opinion pieces speaking for the voiceless. Most of them take the stance that there is a "problem" with stray dogs, but that we need a humane solution. I agree with this broadly, but I think we need new terminology to talk about this.

Search This Blog