NBA’s squad to face rising waters

VADODARA, July 19: The samarpit dal (dedicated squad) of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), including its leader Medha Patkar, is determin...

VADODARA, July 19: The samarpit dal (dedicated squad) of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), including its leader Medha Patkar, is determined to face the swirling waters of the Sardar Sarovar Project as the water level in river Narmada increased sharply on Sunday following rains in the catchment area.

In a statement on Monday, Sanjay Sangvai and M K Sukumar of the NBA said that parts of the unmetalled road from Kadipani to Hapeshwar — the main approach to the villages that will be submerged, including Domkhedi in Maharashtra and Jalsindhi in Madhya Pradesh — had gone under water, making it difficult to communicate with these villages and several others.

They maintained that in this year’s monsoon, 60 villages with more than 2,000 families would be submerged with the dam height increasing to 88 meters, including 3 meters of humps.

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They said at Rajghat, near Badwani, the water level had risen to 117.1 m on Friday night, only to recede marginally to 113.76 m on Saturday morning. Apart from Patkar, Bawa Muhariya and Sitarambhai Patidar of the NBA are on satyagrah. Those in Jalsindhi are protesting against what they call the callous attitude of the MP Government in dealing with submergence and resettlement issues.

In another development, several Domkhedi-based NBA activists also lodged a symbolic protest with the police complaining of discrimination against students of their village jeevan shala.

Meanwhile, preparations for the `Rally for the Valley’ are on. Apart from Arundhati Roy, a large number of artists and prominent personalities from all over the country are expected to participate in the rally, which will start from Indore on July 30 and pass through different parts of the valley before reaching Jalsindhi satyagrha site on August 2.

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