Release of the report of the Central Fact Finding Team to Narmada – SSP affected areas

New Delhi, 13th June 2015 

The ground level fact finding report from Sardar Sarovar 

Project Submergence Areas in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat titled 

‘Drowning a Valley: Destroying a Civilisation”  was released today at Indian Women’s 

Press Corps by the Fact Finding team who visited the villages on 9-10 May 2015. A 20 

minutes short film shot on the governmental decision to raise the height of the SSP from 

121.92 mts to its full height of 138.68 mts. by Anil Anand and Ramesh Pimple was also 

screened at the same. The meeting was addressed and report released by the members 

of the team, Hannan Mollah (CPIM), Annie Raja (NFIW), Benoy Vishwam (CPI) and 

Soumya Datta (Environmentalist).   

Hannah Mollah, eight time member of Parliament of the Communist Party of India 

(Marxist) and Politbureau Member of CPI(M), stated that the work in progress at Sardar 

Sarovar Dam is in gross violation of the ruling of the Supreme Court and the 

recommendations of the Tribunal as detailed in the report. Annie Raja, General 

Secretary of National Federation of Indian Women and a member of the central 

executive committee of the CPI, suggested that the Supreme Court of India constitute a 

monitoring mechanism to ensure the implementation of its recommendations in the 

light of the violations that the report documents.  The Central Government and State 

Governments of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat had blatantly lied in the 

Supreme Court regarding zero balance of displaced people to be rehabilitated, Soumya 

Dutta pointed out . He also informed that out of around 48,000 project affected families 

(PAF) not more 11,300 have received land based rehabilitation. The rest are still 

waiting for rehabilitation as ordered by the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal and the 

Supreme Court.  Many families living in the submergence zone have not even been 

counted in the project affeced list, thus being excluded from any possibility of 

compensation and rehabilitation. Thousands are in constant fear of submergence with 

the coming monsoon. Benoy Vishwam, Ex Forest Minister from Kerala and a senior 

member of CPI, pointed out that rehabilitation of the affected families should be the 

primary concern of the government, but on the contrary it can be that the state and 

centre goverments are conspiring together to hide the reality to proceed with the 

The report was composed after the visit to the potential submergence area, by a team 

comprising of Shri Hannan Mollah, Ms Annie Raja, Shri Benoy Vishwom, Dr Sunilam – 

two time member of Legislative Assembly of Madhya Pradesh, Shri Raj Kachroo – a well 

known hydrologist and Shri Soumya Dutta – a well known expert on energy and climate 

issues.  Due to last minute glitches, Shri K C Tyagi and Shri Raj Babbar could not join the 

team. Shri Panchilal Meda (former MLA, Dharampuri, Dhar Dist) and Shri Ramesh Patel 

(Sitting MLA, Badwani Constituency) of Congress party also joined the team in Madhya 

Pradesh during these two days. 

The fact finding team visited villages and townships in Madhya Pradesh and hilly areas 

in Maharashtra, interacted with about 5-6 thousands of oustees from Madhya Pradesh, 

Maharashtra and representatives from Gujarat. It could visit R&R sites in only MP, but 

recorded depositions of oustees from Maharashtra and Gujarat. It went through a 

number of documents, studies, reports and non-official accounts extensively. 

Major concern of the fact finding team was that the the dam height of the Sardar Sarovar 

project is being raised to about 139 metres from the existing 121.92 M, while thousands 

of oustees at the existing height are still to be rehabilitated. As a result of the increased 

height, the back water levels will go up, specially during high flood levels, inundating 

many villages and hamlets which were near or even not-so-near the river bank, forcing 

permanent displacement for several villages and temporary displacement of several 

more in monsoons with heavy rains. It has been reported by several local groups that 

many of these displaced families – now numbering in thousands – has not even been 

recognised as ‘displaced’, thus denying them any compensation or rehabilitation 

Copies of the report were distributed among those who attended the meeting. It was 

also agreed upon that the copy of the report be sent to the judicial bodies, governmental 

organisations like SC/ST  Welfare Commission and concerned ministries. 

Delhi Solidarity Group

Contact: 9643349452, 9212587159, 9958797409

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