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

Missed call drive for VVPAT verification follows online plea to "pressure" poll panel

By Our Representative
Several political activists have begun a new campaign, asking concerned citizens to give a missed call on 9667655855 to “support the demand that 2019 Loksabha elections must be declared only after verification of 50% electronic voting machines (EVMs) with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) receipts.” The effort, supported by civil society networks across India, is meant to "further pressure" India's election machinery to ensure that the poll outcome becomes more transparent.

Did Modi own, buy digital camera costing Rs 7 lakh in 1987-88, also used email?

Counterview Desk
In an interview to the news channel News Nation, aired on Saturday last, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declaring that he had approved the air strike despite bad weather because he felt the clouds would hide Indian planes from Pakistani radar is known to have become a laughing stock across India.

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.

When a neo-nationalist "invaded" hijab clad ladies, Bengali looking scholar in Delhi metro

By Aditi Kundu*
Travelling in Delhi metro on a daily basis to commute from Mayur Vihar to Dwarka, I see diverse people everyday. One can hear them talk about different aspects of life, from kitchen pilitics to national politics. On the morning of May 13, I witnessed a strange incident; disturbing and amusing at the same time.

Terror attacks: Difference in public reactions in India, those in Colombo, Christchurch

By Battini Rao*
Recently, on April 20 during Easter Sunday, more than 250 people were killed in a series of coordinated terrorist attacks in churches and hotels in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Local Islamic organisations Thawheed Jamath (NJT) and Jamathei Milathu Ibrahim (JMI) are held responsible for the attack. Islamic State has also claimed responsibility.

Women lost 88 lakh jobs in 2018: Why Modi "failed" to address their disempowerment?

Counterview Desk
Five human rights leaders Anjali Bhardwaj, Shabnam Hashmi, Purnima Gupta, Dipta Bhog, and Amrita Johri of the Women March for Change have posed 56 questions (alluding to Modi’s claim of 56 inches chest) to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP against the backdrop of his interview with a Bollywood star, which was allegedly masqueraded as a “non-political” conversation.

PepsiCo warned: Withdraw cases against Gujarat farmers or face dire consequences

By Our Representative
About 200 farmers’ leaders and activists, in a letter to Dr KV Prabhu, chairperson, Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority (PPVFRA), and Dr R C Agrawal, registrar general, PPVFRA, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India, have demanded that PepsiCo immediately withdraw all the legal suits it has slapped on many potato farmers in different districts of Gujarat.

During Emergency, the ruler was extolled but Opposition wasn't punched around: Scribe

By Rajiv Shah
A just-released book, “India: The Wrong Transition”, by a top Delhi-based scribe Anand K Sahay, has quoted “journalistic circles” to say that the Indian mainstream media – with certain “honourable exceptions” – has virtually abandoned the “practice of journalism”, and this happened following a “sting operation” that showed that “the crème de la crème of Indian journalism were only too willing, for a suitable price, to let poisonous Hindutva propaganda prevail in their news columns.”

Ex-IAS, IPS, IFS officers tell Modi: Pragya Thakur doesn't represent India's rich heritage

Counterview Desk
In an open statement, a group of former civil servants have said that normally they would have dismissed the candidature of Pragya Thakur, who is BJP’s choice for the Bhopal Lok Sabha constituency, as an act of political expediency. However, they were forced to react to her candidature after none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed has as a “symbol of our civilisational heritage.”

Disproportionately high death sentences against Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims: UN told

Counterview Desk
In their joint submission to the United Nations Human Rights Committee to meet for the listing of adoption of list of issues at its 126th session, July 1-26, 2019, top Dalit rights organizations have taken strong exception to, among other things, "disproportional application of death sentencing by the judiciary of minorities, such as Muslims, Dalits and Adivasis".

Counterview

Search This Blog