Govt to review Narmada Dam height: Medha says will continue fast

New Delhi, Apr 12 (UNI) The Government today decided to review the proposal to raise the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam in the face of an ongoing agitation by Narmada Bachao Andolan, led by Ms Medha Patkar.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Ms Patkar, however, said she was not withdrawing her hunger strike just yet. ''Let the results of the review come first,'' she said. ''Our agitation will continue.'' Briefing reporters on the meeting, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz would soon convene a meeting of the review committee to examine the March 8 decision of the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) to raise the height of the dam.

Official sources said the review committee of the NCA is likely to meet on Friday.

Ms Patkar, who completed 15 days of hunger strike today, said the NBA had received no communication from the Government on its decision to review the March 8 order of NCA.

''There is no question of withdrawing our hunger strike till they stop works on the dam,'' she told UNI.

After the CCPA meeting, CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan and CPI(M) Polit Bureau Member Brinda Karat called on Dr Singh to discuss the issue.

At the half-an-hour meeting, the Left leaders sought an immediate suspension of the ongoing work at the dam and release of the report of the Group of Ministers (GoM) which visited the dam site following the indefinite fast undertaken by Ms Patkar.

Ms Karat told UNI that the Prime Minister, however, refused to make the GoM's findings public and clarified that it would first go to the review committee.

''We are not satisfied with the Prime Minister's response,'' she said. But the Left leaders persisted that the report be made public even as the review committee was going into the subject.

Earlier today, activists from scores of people's organisations -- many of them part of the National Alliance of People's Movement -- served a 48-hour ultimatum on the Government, asking it to publicise the GoM's findings.

Representatives of the people's organisations had assembled here on the NBA's call for a day-long convention on the issue of displacement and to discuss and strategise future struggles against the ''unjust forces of the State''.

In another related development, a number of organisations and individuals -- including some of those who began a relay hunger strike at the NBA's dharna site near Jantar mantar -- petitioned the National Human Rights Commission today.

While pointing out that Ms Patkar and Mr Jamsingh Nargave were being kept at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences against their wishes and claiming that NBA activists were harassed by police on April 5 night, they demanded the NHRC's intervention in the matter.

''Not only have the human rights of the detained activists been grossly violated, however, the continued construction of the SSP in violation of the Narmada Waters Disputes Tribunal award and the Supreme Court judgments constitutes a continuing saga of gross human rights violation,'' a letter signed among others by AITUC Secretary Amarjeet Kaur, Kavita Srivastava of the People's Union for Civil Liberties, et al, said.

The Narmada Control Authority had decided to raise the dam's height from 110.64 to 121.9 metres on March 8 last. The NBA began its protest here on March 17, saying nearly 35,000 families would lose their source of livelihood and homes due to submergence in the dam's waters if the decision is implemented.

Ms Patkar, Mr Nargave and Bhagwatiben Patidar began an indefinite hunger strike on March 29. Police forcibly shifted Ms Patkar and Mr Nargave to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences on April 5 and slapped a case of attempted suicide against them.

The three are living on lemon water ever since in a show of defiance that has received support from people's organisations and others from across the country.

UNI SN/KSA/VN SS HS2101