More than 900 people from over 50 villages of Madhya Pradesh staged a dharna outside the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) office in Indore on Thursday, fearing flooding of their villages if the Sardar Sarovar Dam was filled to its brim in September as per the schedule set in a meeting in 2017.
A day ahead of a review meeting of representatives of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and the Centre on the project in New Delhi, Narmada Bachao Andolan’s Medha Patkar exhorted the Madhya Pradesh government to take a firm position against filling up of water upto 138.68 metres even as rehabilitation of people remained incomplete. At least 15 representatives each from villages of Barwani, Dhar and Khargone districts submitted their demands. The meeting mentioned shifting those affected rather than rehabilitating them before September.
