When Justice Daud went to the Narmada Valley in search of the truth ...

Ground Realities in Narmada Valley

Ecnomic and Political Weekly (EPW) 25 August 2001, which also appeared under the title Satya Shodhak August 2001 in India Together.

L S Aravinda

Patiently climbing the Satpura hills under a blazing May sun, the gentleman had every right to be annoyed for having to cover for his incompetent learned colleagues of the judiciary. It was like summoning a brain surgeon to diagnose a cold, a pilot to steer a tricycle, vernier calipers to measure mountains. However you look at it, Justice Daud and his ?satya shodhak' (truth-seeking or fact-finding) samiti were called in at a very very late stage, to hear very primary facts. What the villagers in Manibeli told them under the canopy made of leaves, extending from the ?jeevanshala', was hardly so subtle or obscure as to require the services of a Truth Committee. Their bountiful natural resources and strong social fabric in their home villages, the unlivable conditions in the resettlement sites, the callous treatment by government officials, repression and violence by the police, formed part of a chronicle witnessed by and told to many over the years. It ought to have been heard and acknowledged long ago by the Supreme Court itself, or at least by the court-appointed Grievance Redressal Authorities in 1999 and 2000.

But the honourable court is deaf to anything but English, and the Grievance Redressal Authorities are blind to anything not in print. When Bija Jugalya Vasave of Chimalkhedi said, "I had gone to ascertain whether my name existed in the electoral roll. It said that I had died two years ago," Justice Daud laughed out loud and dictated, "This is the state of the official records". It was at that point, and not before, that the notorious defects of official records entered into the official knowledge as far as R and R for Sardar Sarovar project oustees was concerned. The villagers told Justice Daud before he left, "We felt good talking to you".

Some consolation. As the tribal song goes, the dam builders just go on damming, damming, damming.

Earlier Justice Daud had a tour of the dam from one of the Sardar Sarovar engineers, Gajjar. With glee he showed off his prize toy. These are the canals, these are the turbines, this is where we will generate 200 megawatts...as soon as we can complete the construction! Off we all whizzed in the caravan over and under, around and through the dam site. "The water", he explained, "as we say in our technical language, has x, y, and z mobility". Hands flailing, and whole body bopping up and down, he illustrated the fabulous mobility of the water through the canals: "z is the vertical, x is the horizontal, and y is...y is...y is the other one". Not to be outdone, More, Maharashtra chief engineer and joint secretary, irrigation piped in, "assuming the world has three dimensions". The judge listened through the whole show-and-tell, right up to the display of large metal parts of the whole grand shebang, also to be used "as soon as we can complete the construction". "If I may make a comment", said the judge, "you seem to have taken the acquiescence of the people for granted. This must have been a huge capital expenditure!"

"We like to think of these canals as our Sabarmati", gushed Gajjar. "Both can have a flow of 25,000 cusecs." There the similarity ends. Civilisations have grown along the Sabarmati, whereas communities are broken by dams and canals. While all may freely go to the banks of Sabarmati, those living along a canal, whose land is now under it, have no right even to touch the waters. Gajjar's words of consolation: "legally people do not have the right, but really, how can anyone stop them"? The engineer went on to express his surprise that only 1 m depth of flow was required to supply drinking water. But "such is human nature", he conceded, "that once this demand is fulfilled, there will be demand for more".

The temporary water pumping facility sends water to cities like Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Rajkot and Bhavnagar, while advertisement of the same has reached newspapers and magazines around the world. It cost Rs 35 crore to set up, plus recurring costs for the 80 diesel engines, plus advertising (Chicago Tribune ain't cheap) plus supply costs borne by each city. The Ajva reservoir, Gajjar announced proudly, is already full. More cooed admiringly, "Ajva reservoir is full. That is very nice." The Ajva reservoir supplies Vadodara. What about Kutch and Saurashtra? Check back next year, promises the ad. Assuming the world has three dimensions.