Author: Editorial
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: July 5, 2006
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/7861.html
Introduction: What the Shunglu Committee report
signifies: time to put an end to the Narmada controversy
One of the major concerns voiced by the Narmada
Bachao Andolan (NBA) in their extended agitation earlier this year has been
seriously pursued. The report of the V.K. Shunglu Committee to look into the
relief and rehabilitation provided to those displaced by the Sardar Sarovar
project has been supported not just by the inquiries conducted done by the
three persons comprising the committee, but by teams from the National Sample
Survey Organisation. The exercise lends clarity to an issue that has been
befuddled by a high-decibel public campaign. The submission of the report
should signify an end to the benighted Narmada controversy that an India in
desperate need of both water and power can ill afford.
The Shunglu Committee report has not been
made public. But it appears to have suggested that while rehabilitation is
far from perfect, it is nowhere as bad as that made out by NBA's activists
and compulsive do-gooders, and is amenable to correction given some committed
governmental action. The important point is that those who opted for cash
compensation have got it, and a fairly accurate estimation of those who say
they have been unfairly left out of the compensation package has been arrived
at. Earlier reporting by this newspaper, and independent surveys of other
NGOs operating in the area, suggest that the data on both submergence and
compensation have been overblown by the NBA. In some instances, dam oustees
who were prepared to settle for the government's rehabilitation package were
strongly dissuaded by NBA activists from doing so. It is such anomalies that
necessitated an objective assessment of the kind made by the Shunglu Committee.
Good, effective rehabilitation requires to be supported by accurate data and
objective analysis. The irresponsible courting of cheap popularity that Union
Water Minister Saifuddin Soz indulged in last April is certainly not helpful
in such a context.
The Shunglu Committee report will now be submitted
to the Supreme Court, which has lent clarity to the issue by cutting through
the "noise" over the dam project and allowing work on the dam to
continue, even while upholding the principle of credible relief and rehabilitation.
For this enlightened position, the country's highest court deserves our gratitude.
We have said this before and we will say it again, the Sardar Sarovar project
is far too important to be held hostage to misguided activism and high-profile
protests.
editor@expressindia.com
