Medha Patkar suspends ‘Jal Satyagrah’ hours after PM Modi inaugurates Sardar Sarovar dam

Badwani: Social activists Medha Patkar and other villagers stand in water of Narmada river to protest the birthday celebration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi by inaugurating the construction of Sardar Sarovar Dam, during ”Jalsatyagrah” at Chhota Barda Village in Badwani district of Madhya Pradesh on Saturday. (PTI Photo)

Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Sardar Sarovar dam in Gujarat, Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar on Sunday suspended the ‘jal satyagrah’ she had started with project affected women on Friday. Led by Patkar, a group of women were sitting in water on the steps of a ghat as water level rose marginally over the last couple of days. The protesters had announced that they would continue to squat at the protesting site and submerge themselves if water level rose further.

Patkar said she was suspending the agitation but said it would continue in other forms till proper rehabilitation was not done.

READ: A short history of the Sardar Sarovar Dam on river Narmada

At the end of the protest, Patkar and others were taken in small boats into the river where they took a pledge to carry on their agitation. She alleged that the inauguration of the dam was a conspiracy because thousands of affected people were yet to rehabilitated. “We want vikas not vinash,’’ she said and accused the Centre, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh governments of misleading people by tweaking statistics. “punarvas nahi to bandh nahi.’’

Earlier she described as laughable the claim that the dam was complete alleging that thousands of kilometer of canal network in Gujarat was not complete. “It’s a fake inauguration,’’ she claimed scoffing the claim that the dam was a civil engineering wonder. “We need social engineering because we are talking of heart, brain, blood and sweat, not concrete.’’

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“We want vikas not vinash,’’ she said and accused the centre, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh governments of misleading people by tweaking statistics.