Man-made disaster: Ignoring heavy rain warnings and farmers’ needs, the BJP government refused to release water from the Sardar Sarovar dam till Sunday, eventually leading to ‘large-scale’ damage, the Congress said. The AAP too criticized the government’s actions.
A day after the Gujarat government opened the floodgates of the Sardar Sarovar dam, the Opposition Congress said the state BJP government refused to release the dam’s waters when farmers needed it but, instead, stored it so that the reservoir overflowed on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday on September 17. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) too raised similar allegations.
Calling it a “man-made disaster”, the Congress alleged that this eventually forced the government to release a large volume of water from the dam on Sunday, causing a flood in downstream Bharuch district and resultant “large-scale damage” affecting “lakhs of people”.
Meanwhile, the Narmada dam and nine other reservoirs continued to overflow for the second day on Monday following heavy rain. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) rescued 37 people, including three infants, seven children and 21 women, after they were trapped in the floodwaters of the Dhami River in Arvalli district’s Demai village on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday.
Pal Ambaliya, chairman of the Gujarat Kisan Congress, the farmers’ wing of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC), alleged that the largest reservoir of Sardar Sarovar, which is popularly known as Narmada dam, was “made to overflow”. “Narmada dam did not overflow on September 17, 2023, but it was made to overflow. Everyone is happy that the dam has overflowed, but it has not happened naturally. The dam was made to overflow artificially to please Narendra Modi,” Ambaliya said in a statement.
The Congress leader alleged that through such action, the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited (SSNNL), an undertaking of the Gujarat government, caused “wide-scale damage” to people. “In doing that, vested interests have certainly been protected but scores of people had to suffer large-scale damage. For example, farmers of Saurashtra, Kutch and north Gujarat regions had been longing for water for the past one month. But they were not given water because they (the government) were waiting for September 17.”
Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel had flown to Kevadiya, the site of the dam, on Sunday morning for the “Narmada jal na vadhamana” or to welcome the Narmada waters. The day also marked PM Modi’s 73rd birthday.
Noting that AAP workers have reached affected areas in Bharuch to extend aid and assistance, AAP Gujarat chief Isudan Gadhvi said on Monday that Bharuch and its surrounding areas have been flooded or are facing a flood-like situation. “People have a question in their minds now – is this current flood a natural disaster or a man-made one,” he asked, before appealing to the administration to rehabilitate the affected people, and to ensure that food and shelter are provided for them.
“While aspiring for accolades, we should consider whether such activities are creating difficulties for the public. BJP leaders should keep this in mind,” said Gadhvi.
Meanwhile, Ambaliya said that if the SSNNL had released the water in a staggered manner, standing crops across lakhs of acres could have been irrigated. He also said that the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had warned of heavy rain, but SSNNL waited till the Prime Minister’s birthday to open the floodgates.
“The IMD had warned five days ago that extremely heavy rainfall, which will require a red alert to be sounded, was likely to be experienced in central and south Gujarat regions. In such a situation, by causing the Narmada dam to overflow artificially, by releasing lakhs of cusecs of water over the past two days, people living downstream the dam, for example in Bharuch, have been made victims of an artificial flood. This is a man-made disaster,” said Ambaliya.
He also alleged that officers of the Madhya Pradesh government released 9.45 lakh cusecs of water from the Indirasagar Dam to make the Sardar Sarovar overflow on September 17. “I had predicted last year 15 days in advance that Narmada dam would overflow on September 17 only and my prediction was proven right… The same thing happened this year as well,” he said.
“When there is heavy rainfall in low-lying areas of the Narmada River, they opened 23 gates of the Narmada dam to please Modi and created a grim situation of flood downstream. Lakhs of people are battling the flood… Has the dam been constructed only to celebrate Narendra Modi’s birthday?” asked the Congress leader.
Gujarat’s Water Resources Minister Kunvarji Bavaliya could not be reached immediately for a comment.
The SSNNL has been discharging 5.94 lakh cusecs of water from the dam by keeping three gates open and has also been releasing 18,593 cusecs of water into the dam’s canal. Similarly, the irrigation department is discharging water from Ukai and Damanganga dams in the south Gujarat region; Wanakbori, Panam, Hadaf, Kadana, Karjan dams in the central Gujarat region and Dantiwada and Dharoi dams in the north Gujarat region.
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SOURCE: -THE INDIAN EXPRESS
