Uma Bharati forces Jairam Ramesh to stop construction of a dam

Where environmental activists failed, former BJP leader Uma Bharati had succeeded, although partially. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Jun 1, 2011, 01:02:37 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Where environmental activists failed, former BJP leader Uma Bharati had succeeded, although partially.

She had got construction of 330 MW hydro power plant in Uttrakhand stopped on the ground that it will lead to submergence of the centuries old Dhara Devi temple in the Srinagar valley but failed to convince environment minister Jairam Ramesh to scrap the project.

The Srinagar Hydroelectric project in Uttarakhand got environment ministry’s clearance in 1987 and its capacity was increased to 330 MW in 1995. Recently, the Uttarakhand government had stayed construction beyond 200 MW asking environment ministry to re-examine environment clearance for increasing its capacity to 300 MW.

The controversy got political this month with Uma Bharati sitting on a fast since May 9 and demanding that the temple should be saved at any cost. She also demanded a law to protect river Ganga and a committee to review all hydel projects on river Ganga.

The environment ministry on Monday asked Alaknanda Hydro Power Company Limited to stop construction of the dam, under discussion for over 30 years, immediately. The dam is being constructed on river Alaknanda, tributary of river Ganga, in the Srinagar valley.

With the stop work order, the ministry has also decided to conduct site inspection and Ramesh has asked the officials to submit a report to him by June 21 to take a final call.

Bharati has not budged from her position and continues to be on fast saying unless the Prime Minister intervenes.

Ramesh also told Bharati that not only Alakananda but other hydel projects coming up on river Bhagirathi in Uttarakhand are also under review. "The ministry will stipulate minimum environment flow for rivers linked with Ganga in the next two weeks," Environment minister Jairam Ramesh said.

The ministry had asked IIT Roorkee in 2010 to conduct a study to indicate minimum environmental flow to be stipulated for individual projects so that adequate water is available for aquatic bio-diversity and for meeting aesthetic objectives.

The IIT has submitted its report and has recommended minimum river flow of three to four times of what is required for getting environment clearance. "This minimum flow will ensure that there is water in both Alakananda and Bhagirathi river around the year," Ramesh said.

Construction of dams on river tributaries of Ganga in upper Himalayan region has become a political issue before the state assembly elections slated for early next year.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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