NEW DELHI, 17 April 2006 — Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday studied the report of the Narmada review committee meeting chaired by Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz, even as an all-party delegation of parliamentarians from Gujarat urged him not to stall the work on the controversial Narmada dam.
The delegation of 26 Gujarat MPs met the prime minister at his residence and appealed to him not to review the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) decision of last month allowing the height of the under-construction dam in central Gujarat to be raised from 110 meters to 121 meters.
“The prime minister has heard us and has assured us that the decision on the dam height will not be reviewed,” Arun Jaitley of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who represents Gujarat in the Rajya Sabha, told reporters here.
The prime minister’s media adviser Sanjaya Baru, however, said: “The prime minister has heard them (Gujarat MPs), though he has not taken any decision.”
The delegation included Textile Minister Shankarsinh Vaghela, Ahmed Patel, Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s political adviser, Gujarat Congress chief Bharatsinh Solanki, as well as former Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel and former central ministers Kashiram Rana and Harin Pathak of the BJP. Following protests from the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) against the NCA decision, a central ministerial team had visited Madhya Pradesh to assess the resettlement and rehabilitation of those affected by the project.
Soz had Saturday called a meeting of the Review Committee of the Narmada Control Authority (RCNCA) to reconsider the decision to raise the height. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, however, opposed the proposal in the meeting, accusing the central government of bowing to the pressure of the “anti-development lobby”.
