Gujarat BJP president CR Paatil has said that the Centre has decided to drop the Par-Tapi-Narmada (PTN) river-linking project as both Maharashtra and Gujarat governments did not give their consent to it. Speaking to The Indian Express, Paatil said that a delegation of ministers and party leaders from Gujarat met Union Home Minister Amit Shah at his residence in Delhi on Monday and gave a representation on the proposed project's impact on the tribals. Congress MLA Anant Patel from Vansda in South Gujarat has also been spearheading protests and generating support against the project. A meeting in this regard was held in Gandhinagar on Friday which was attended by top Congress leaders. Paatil said, “Our delegation met Shah in Delhi to highlight the impact of PTN river-linking project on the tribals. Later Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat also joined. All the three Union ministers agreed to drop the project over the displacement of tribals.” Among those who were part of the delegation from Gujarat included Tribal Minister Naresh Patel, Fisheries Minister Jitubhai Kaprada, Mangrol BJP MLA and former tribal minister Ganpat Vasava, Valsad BJP MP KC Patel. “For the PTN project, the consent of Maharashtra and Gujarat governments were needed, and both the states didn't give consent. So, this project will not take shape. Even in the recent Gujarat Budget, no allocation has been made for the project. We have also announced that not an inch of land belonging to tribals will be acquired,” Paatil said. In her Union Budget speech last month, Sitharaman had announced river-linking projects, including PTN project, to be carried out by central government. The first protest meeting was held on February 28 in Dharampur taluka of Valsad district, followed by Vyara on March 5, Dang on March 11 and Kaprada on March 21, some of which were also attended by Shiv Sena leader Abhinav Delkar whose father, late Mohan Delkar was a tribal leader from Dadra Nagar Haveli and its Independent Lok Sabha MP. His mother, Kalaben, who is a Shiv Sena MP, raised the tribal displacement issue in the Lok Sabha the very day the Congress held a protest meeting against the project in Gandhinagar on March 25. In all these meetings, tribals voiced fears about displacement and losing ancestral land and property. The next meeting is scheduled to be held in Mandvi taluka of Surat district on April 8. Talking to The Indian Express, Vansda Congress MLA Anant Patel said, “We don’t believe in the verbal statements of BJP leaders or ministers. We want a white paper from Central government. If they don’t come up with white paper (shwetpatra), we will continue our future public meetings in South Gujarat.” The project proposes to transfer river water from the surplus regions of the Western Ghats to the deficit regions of Saurashtra and Kutch. It proposes to link three rivers — Par, originating from Nashik in Maharashtra and flowing through Valsad; Tapi from Saputara that flows through Maharashtra and Surat in Gujarat; and Narmada originating in Madhya Pradesh and flowing through Maharashtra and Bharuch and Narmada districts in Gujarat.
