AHMEDABAD, July 25: The agitational programmes planned by various groups and activists supporting the multi-crore Sardar Sarovar Project to counter celebrity writer Arundhati Roy's `Rally for the Valley' beginning from Delhi on July 29 have been called off.According to Krishnaprasad Patel of the newly-formed Narmada Samarthan Samiti, with the Supreme Court taking a firm stance against the Narmada Bachao Andolan for its ``propaganda campaign'' against the dam with the support of Arundhati Roy ``we found little need to launch an agitation to counter them.''Patel told Express Newsline that two bus-loads of ``well-settled project affected people'' would still be taken to Delhi for a peaceful demonstration on July 29 to get their message across to Arundhati and other anti-dam activists. They would be taken there to convey to Arundhati and the NBA that the Gujarat Government had settled the project-affected people properly, he said.Earlier, people from all districts of Gujarat and ``from all walks of life, including members of various chambers of commerce in the state, along with hundreds of farmers from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab'' were to stage a massive rally in Delhi as well as at all the places which Arundhati's `Rally for the Valley' is scheduled to cover. A public meeting planned to be held in Kevadia on the day Arundhati would a meeting at Jal Sindhi has also been cancelled, Patel said.Meanwhile, the Samiti members held a meeting in Delhi with Mahendra Singh Tikait and representatives of farmers' bodies from Haryana, UP and Punjab on Friday. According to a Press release issued by the Samiti here on Sunday, Tikait and other leaders have expressed their solidarity with the SSP and are willing to ``plunge into the valley with hundreds of farmers'' whenever required.The release issued by Hasmukh Patel of the Samiti claimed that spiritual leader Swami Agnivesh went to meet Tikait in Delhi on knowing his views in support of the SSP. Tikait told him ``that farmers' organisations would support the NBA only if it restricts itself to the issue of rehabilitation of oustees; and that the NBA should help in resettling the people,'' the statement claimed.
