Ma Rewa

Medha patkar is again on a hunger strike to stop the raising of the Sardar Sarovar Dam. I believe she must be having enough good reasons to take such a drastic step to stop a development work. They have been raging a battle against the government and claiming that mega dams don't contribute to any good cause and are only beneficial to a small group of people who get money by building dams etc.

What I feel in their approach is that they lack a little more detail to their cause. I happened to see the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) site. The site talks that the claims made by the committee on the benefits of Sardar Sarovar are highly inflated, the rehabilitation is not done and all valid causes. Which are also perfectly believable. I mean no one would open his mouth and say "Is that so?" considering that's not too way off the line of corruption our netas are perpetrating. What I feel can add iron to the stick which NBA is wielding is hard data. You can say that how many villages are required to rehabilitate the people and bring that to media. Cost-benefit or cost-loss analysis as they would want to present can be put on their site so that it can be debated openly. Why is a dam which would give electricity to a country that's starving for it, irrigation for farmers of kucch, flood protection to people in Madhya pradesh and Gujarat be a bad proposition considering mammoth costs also. This question comes to my mind even at the risk of being labeled immoral for the plight of those displaced. Here's the link to the Narmada Valley Development Authority which is not better than the NBA site but atleast has sections about the major concerns a project should have. Has some data tables to show. I am not competitive enough to verify its sanctity but atleast its left for public to verify and debate about.

No one can give you the same piece of land which you cultivated or even the same place where you have spent your childhood. But for development sake these kinds of things have to be done. Only thing is that the Sardar Sarovar project should need far more planning in these issues as its for the people that the dam is being built. If the authorities take a non human stand then perhaps we would not need any dam in the first place. So they need to have organised and transparent re-location at the cost of perhaps giving more than what they already had to compensate them. Also this is perhaps a very good opportunity for the dreamers of township planning to cut out model villages, towns along the reservoir which beats the major city planning.
I think what these hungerstrikes do is justified considering it wakes up the sleeping netas who are then forced to do something for the plight of the people. To listen to them, give proper hearing to the illiterate who might not know how to shout out for their rights. That their rehabilitation is done in a proper and satisfactory manner. But at the end of it I feel that the dam should get completed and its benefits are shown rather than it being finished half or remain unfinished for ever.