Has SSNNL ever advised Gujarat govt not to invite water-intensive industries to Vibrant Gujarat summits?

By Sagar Rabari*

Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNNL), the Gujarat government special purpose vehicle (SPV) responsible for implementing the mega Narmada project in the state, is known to have advised farmers not to grow water-intensive crops. Farmers have reason to wonder: Has SSNNL ever given a similar advise to its political bosses not to invite water-intensive industries during biennial Vibrant Gujarat global business summits?

The advise to Gujarat farmers was not to grow crops like sugarcane, paddy and banana, which are profitable to them. Though farmers haven’t disagreed with the advice, they are indeed asking sharp questions, which SSNNL and Gujarat government officials must answer.

The view is strong that the SSNNL intention for advising farmers not to grow water intensive crops – that farmers should get water till the last farm of the command area – is not honest. Farmers feel, SSNNL wants farmers to save water, pretending water scarcity, but is actually diverting water to industry.

Is SSNNL ready to increase its command area beyond 18.45 lakh hectares (ha), to be irrigated with Narmada water? If yes, farmers argue, they would agree not to grow water-intensive crops in the command area and save water by promoting micro- irrigation.

Farmers know: It is the same SSNNL, which has not come clean on giving accounts of Narmada waters used during the last agriculture season, on how much water did the Narmada dam reservoir receive, how much was released in the canal, how much was provided to farmers to irrigate their fields, and how much of it went to industry and drinking water.

But one thing is clear: Though there was 22% deficit rainfall in the Narmada basin the area, which mainly falls in Madhya Pradesh, the Narmada canal water, provided by SSNNL, could irrigate less than one third, or 6 lakh ha, as against 18.45 lakh ha, as planned. Then why this restriction?

Would SSNNL assure the people of Gujarat that it has not diluted its water use plan or dam manual? If not, how did it dare advise farmers, or pretend to advise them, going so far to threatening them not to use water for water-intensive crops?

Were there any restrictions when water use plan was prepared or command area was calculated? If not, then why now? Would this advisory, to save water, be applicable even during the coming Lok Sabha elections? Is SSNNL, formed to provide water to farmers, playing in the hands of ruling dispensation to gain something invisible to common people?

Sometimes it seems that Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar is right: That the dam has not being built for farmers of the state but for big corporate houses. Those who deserve the most are being denied first!

Farmers of the state must remember and remind it to others, too: Who was responsible for not supplying water to their farms last year, and because of whose failure were they forced to use diesel engines and face the blame of being water thieves?

They must use their vote to teach a lesson to those who are responsible for not building the canal network.

---

*Secretary, Gujarat Khedut Samaj

Comments

World Bank clarifies: Its 26th rank to India not for universal access to power but for ease of doing business

By Our Representative
In a major embarrassment to the Government of India, the World Bank has reportedly clarified that it has not ranked India 26th out of 130 countries for providing power to its population. The top international banker’s clarification comes following Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal’s claim that India has “improved to 26 position from 99” in access to electricity in just one year.

"Misleading" satellite images being shared on Balakot surgical strike on Jaish camp

By Dr Vinay Kate*
With every passing day more questions are being raised about the surgical strike India did in Balakot as a response to Pulwama attacks. So far the Indian media has claimed mass casulaty of 300+ terrorists of Jaish-e-Mohammad in this surgical strike, but there is hardly any report from foreign media about the same.

Extreme repression, corporate loot, cultural genocide "characterise" India's tribal belt

Counterview Desk
As Lok Sabha polls approach, there is considerable ferment in one section of the population -- India's Adivasis, forming about 8.6 per cent of India's population. Things became particularly critical following the February 14, 2019 Supreme Court order, allegedly seeking to evict lakhs of tribals from their forest lands.

Industry in India "barely growing", export growth 0%, whither moral anchors?

Counterview Desk
In a sharp critique of the Modi government, the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), one of world renowned economist Prof Kaushik Basu, who is Professor of Economics and Carl Marks Professor of International Studies at Cornell University, has told students at the IIM-A’s 54th Annual Convocation on March 16, 2019 that they have a “special responsibility” on their shoulders, “the responsibility to reject narrow sectarianism, uphold scientific thinking, openness to new ideas, and freedom of speech.”

Congress would win just 9 of 26 Lok Sabha seats: Gujarat Assembly segment-wise analysis

By Rajiv Shah
Even as the Congress plans its first working committee meet in Gujarat on February 28 after an almost 58 year gap, there is reason to wonder what is in store for India’s grand old party in a state which has been long been a BJP bastion – in fact ever since mid-1990s. Ahead of the then assembly polls in late 2012, talking with me, a senior Gujarat Congress leader, currently Rajya Sabha MP, frankly said he saw no reason why Congress would win.

"Pro-corporate" Supreme Court order on FRA would further marginalize Adivasis

By VS Roy David, JP Raju*
For millions of Adivasis and other traditional forest dwellers February 13, 2019 will go down in history as the day of apocalypse. This is like the proverbial Black Friday where millions of most marginalized people of India were ordered by malicious anti-people draconian Supreme Court order depriving them the life and livelihood by evicting them from their habitats.

Financial inclusion? Not micro-loans; India's poor "need" investment in health, education

By Moin Qazi*
India has grown into a global powerhouse. Its economy is soaring but the picture on the ground is still quite arid. The green shoots that you see are only a patch of its landscape. Most Indians are hapless victims of inequity. India is one country where intense poverty abounds in the shadow of immense wealth.

Gujarat model? Industrial effluents "invade" borewells, discharge coloured water in farms

By Rajiv Shah
In a major embarrassment for Gujarat model, of the 21 samples taken by officials of the state government's environmental watchdog Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) in two villages of Vadodara district and analyzed by its laboratory in Gandhinagar, the state capital, to find out pollution level in groundwater, 16 were assessed as highly contaminated – these were, in fact, found to be discharging reddish, brownish, reddish, or yellowish water.

India, Pakistan told to eliminate nuclear weapons: N-war "would kill" 2 billion

Counterview Desk
The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), a non-partisan federation of national medical organizations in 64 countries, representing tens of thousands of doctors, medical students, other health workers, and concerned citizens, claiming to share the common goal of creating a more peaceful and secure world freed from the threat of nuclear annihilation, has warned that “an unprecedented global catastrophe” awaits the globe against the backdrop of warmongering in India and Pakistan.

Modi wants Pak govt be held responsible for JeM terror strike: World doesn't agree

By Sandeep Pandey*
I went to participate in a candle light homage paying event at Dr BR Ambedkar's statue organised by about 200 Dalit students on Hazratganj main crossing in Lucknow on February 16, 2019 evening, two days after the dastardly terrorist act in Pulwana, Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), in which 44 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel was killed.

Counterview

Search This Blog