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Amit Shah targets Congress for ‘stalling’ dam project in Gujarat
Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday said the Congress had stalled the work for Sardar Sarovar Dam project in Gujarat’s Narmada district for years
Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday said the Congress had stalled the work for Sardar Sarovar Dam project in Gujarat’s Narmada district for years and added that it was only after Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the reins of the state as its chief minister that the project got a fresh lease of life.
Shah, who is on a two-day visit to his home state from Monday, inaugurated a flyover and a primary health centre near Ahmedabad and participated in a host of programmes, including a farmers’ conference in Ahmedabad’s Bavla town.
“From 1964 onwards, the Congress had put the Narmada dam project on a backburner. It was only after Narendra bhai became the chief minister of Gujarat (in 2001) that the project got a new lease of life… and as a result, waters of Narmada have reached Ahmedabad today,” Shah said during the farmers’ conference.
Shah said he was hopeful that with the water of Narmada reaching Ahmedabad district, farmers will be able to reap three crops in a year and will be financially prosperous.
Farmers from Shah’s Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency organised the ‘Rin Sweekar Sammelan’ (conference for acceptance of gratitude) to express gratitude for providing irrigation facilities in 164 villages, a government release said.
Conceptualised in 1946, the construction of Sardar Sarovar Dam hit multiple roadblocks, including inter-state disputes, issues pertaining to land acquisition and environmental clearance issues, besides controversies around rehabilitation of people displaced by the project.
Shah said 37 villages of Sanand taluka and 16 villages of Bavla taluka will get the benefit of Narmada water.
The Union minister also lauded Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel and his government for promoting natural farming in the poll-bound state. “Over 300,000 farmers have already adopted organic farming in Gujarat,” said Shah. “If organic farming is successful in Gujarat, then within five years Gujarat will be engaged in urea-free farming.”
The opposition Congress in the state, however, alleged the minister’s claims were “lies”.
“The Union minister is spreading lies. The foundation stone of Sardar Sarovar project was laid by India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and then successive PMs — including Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi — have taken the project forward,” said Manish Doshi, Gujarat Congress spokesperson. “Till 1994, 80% of the work of the project involving major canals was completed and various Gujarat chief ministers belonging to the Congress had a role to play in it.”
Doshi claimed that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Gujarat “could not complete the minor canal network between 2001 and 2014”.
Earlier in the day, the minister inaugurated a six-lane flyover and a primary health centre in Virochannagar village in Sanand taluka.
Shah, who is visiting his home state where assembly elections are scheduled for later this year, also laid the foundation stone for a 350-beded hospital (upgradable up to 500 beds) to be run by Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) at Sanand in Ahmedabad district. Construction of the hospital — spread over 9.5 acres and equipped with modern facilities — would entail an expenditure of ₹500 crore, according to a government release.
He also inaugurated the six-lane flyover near Bhadaj village on SP Ring Road on the outskirts of the city. The flyover has been built by the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) at a cost of ₹73 crore to ease traffic congestion on the busy Bhadaj circle of the ring road, a release by the Gujarat Government said.
