Govt will rehabilitate Narmada oustees: Patil

Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil on Monday said the Centre would do all it could to rehabilitate people displaced by the dam built over the Narmada.

Noting that the Government valued NBA activist Medha Patkar's views on the Sardar Sarovar Project, Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil on Monday said the Centre would do all it could to rehabilitate people displaced by the dam built over the Narmada.

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"I have no authority to speak on the project but it is the responsibility of the Government to rehabilitate all those people who have suffered because of the project," he said.

According to Patil, the responsibility of rehabilitating people displaced by the dam has to be discharged by the state governments and the Centre would help them to do whatever is necessary according to the direction given by the Supreme Court.

"It is a matter of time, not a matter of money. Although the project would help in providing drinking water and water for irrigation, we would not throw to the wind the problems of those who will suffer because of the project.

"We value her (Medha Patkar) philosophy and the country will be relieved if she gives up her fast in deference to what the court said and the government has been saying," Patil said in his address at the three-day meet of the Confederation of NGOs of Rural India (CNRI) here.

"We'll ensure that the problem is solved and no new problem is created," he said.

Earlier, CNRI chairman Mohan Dharia had appealed to the government to ensure the rehabilitation of the people displaced by the project before the Supreme Court's deadline of August, 2006.