Skip to main content

Narmada valley: SC notice to Gujarat, MP, M'rashtra on submergence sans rehabilitation

By A Representative
Thr Supreme Court has issued notice to Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra governments following a Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA)-backed petition seeking the explanation as to whether large areas of Narmada Valley have gone into submergence by filling up the Sardar Sarovar dam up to the full reservoir level (FRL) without rehabilitating the project affected families (PAFs).
Filed on behalf of dam oustees, the petition was heard by the Supreme Court bench comprising judges NV Ramanna and Ajay Rastogi. The next nearing has been fixed for September 26. Senior advocate Sanjay Parikh told the court that the arbitrary manner in which the dam was allowed to be filled up contradicts the Narmada Water Dispute Tribunal (NWDT) award, as also Supreme Court orders of 2000 and 2005.
Pointing out that the central agency Narmada Control Authority (NCA) allowed the Gujarat authorities to fill up the dam up to FRL, Parikh asserted, little has been done to rehabilitate the oustees, adding NCA even changed the timesheet in order to fill up the dam by September 17. As a result, thousands of families' homes, fields, religious places, innumerable trees, pastures, shops, schools, government buildings etc. have been drowned. Advocate Abhimanyu Shrestha assisted in the petition.

Comments

TRENDING

Civil society at a crossroads: Service delivery vs. rights in the fight for social change

Counterview News   In the latest episode of the podcast Unmute , hosts Gagan Sethi and Minar Pimple convened a profound conversation with two veteran development practitioners to dissect a persistent tension within civil society: the perceived divide between service delivery and the struggle for rights. The episode, titled "Beyond Service Delivery: Civil Society, Rights, and the Politics of Social Change," featured Apoorva Oza , a development practitioner with decades of experience in rural development and institution-building, and Professor Dipa Sinha , a development economist known for her work on food, nutrition, gender, and social policy.

Bangkok IMF-World Bank meetings: New reports put India's debt, climate, accountability crisis in focus

Counterview News   As the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded their Annual Meetings in Bangkok this week, civil society groups and policy experts outside the official proceedings released two critical documents challenging the institutions' legacy and prescriptions for Asia, calling for a fundamental overhaul of the global financial architecture.

European banks accused of coal double standard after shunning Adani’s Galilee mine in Australia

By Rajiv Shah    European banks that helped shut down Adani ’s Galilee Basin coal frontier in Australia a decade ago are now bankrolling a far larger coal expansion just 150 kilometres away, according to a new report from Reclaim Finance and partner NGOs. The study , "Coal Hypocrisy: European Banks’ Double Standard on Thermal and Metallurgical Coal in Australia", finds that 19 European banks provided US$30.3 billion to companies planning metallurgical coal expansion in Queensland’s Bowen Basin between 2021 and 2025, out of a total of US$105.9 billion from international banks.