Once again this year's monsoon rains will bring destruction instead of kharif to the people of the Narmada Valley. Yet again the government has raised the height of the Sardar Sarovar (SSP) dam without providing rehabilitation to those who will be displaced. Successive dharnas by the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) in Delhi, including a three week fast by Medha Patkar and dam-affected villagers Jamsingh Nargave and Bhagwatibai Patidar, have failed to make the government listen.

In May, 48 dam-affected villages presented overwhelming evidence in their Supreme Court application that rehabilitation of all affected families at the impending 122m dam height is incomplete. Both the government-appointed Group of Ministers who visited the valley and the Madhya Pradesh government in its own petition to the court confirmed this assertion. Despite all this, the Supreme Court allowed construction on the SSP to continue. It is indisputable that this decision is a direct violation of the apex court's previous decisions and relevant law.

Without the threat of stopping construction, the states have no incentive to actually provide the required rehabilitation to project affected families.


 •  A moral breach in the dam
 •  The dams balance sheet

According to the Narmada Waters Dispute Tribunal Award (NWDTA) and the Supreme Court's own decisions of 2000 and 2005, rehabilitation of all Project Affected Families (PAFs) in all three affected states (Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra) must be totally completed six months before each successive increase in the dam height. Anyone who cares can look this up in the original NWDTA decision and also the Supreme Court's 2000 and 2005 decisions. Construction on the dam thus cannot legally precede full rehabilitation of affected families.

The Shunglu Committee

Both the apex court and the Prime Minister recognised that rehabilitation was incomplete, but neither was willing to fulfil their legal responsibility to stop construction. Instead, the Prime Minister created, and the Supreme Court endorsed, an Oversight Group (known as the Shunglu Committee) to "independently" investigate the rehabilitation situation in the Narmada Valley. The Court indicated that it would be willing to stop construction if the committee finds rehabilitation to be incomplete.

First, this decision employs a very strange logic. The Shunglu Committee was supposed to report back to the Prime Minister about the rehabilitation status in the valley by 20 June (this has since been delayed). Based on this report, the Prime Minister is supposed to issue a recommendation within seven days to the Supreme Court, which is expected to make a decision by July 3. Even if the committee finds that rehabilitation is incomplete (which it will if it conducts its mission in good faith), by this time construction up to 122 m will be finished!

This means that regardless of the committee's findings, over 35,000 families in the Narmada Valley will see their homes, fields, and communities flooded before the vast majority of them are given their legally guaranteed rehabilitation. It must be stated again that this is entirely illegal according to the NWDTA and the Supreme Court's previous decisions. Furthermore, as history shows, without the threat of stopping construction, the states have no incentive to actually provide the required rehabilitation to project affected families. Thus, lakhs of adivasis displaced at 110m, 100m, 90m and below are still languishing without alternative livelihoods to turn to, as any trip to the Narmada Valley will show.

Second, the survey of dam-affected villages that the Shunglu Committee has been conducting with the help of the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) is methodologically flawed in several ways. First, the instructions given to the committee by the Court only allow it to investigate whether those affected between the 110 and 122 metre dam heights have been rehabilitated. However, it is clear that lakhs of people below that height are still unrehabilitated due to past illegal height increases. Further, the committee is only allowed to verify the information presented in the state's rehabilitation reports and cannot look beyond them.

Even if the committee finds that rehabilitation is incomplete (which it will if it conducts its mission in good faith), by this time construction up to 122 m will be finished!