Now Gujarat 'closes' all Narmada dam gates; Patkar says it will lead to mass lynching

By Our Representative
In a sudden U-turn, the Gujarat government has closed down all the gates atop the Narmada dam just three days after it opened 25 of the 31 gates to “ensure” that the reservoir waters do not rise above 131 metres so that dam oustees’ villages are not submerged. Earlier, late on Saturday, it closed 10 of the 25 gates it had opened.
Taking strong exception to the move, Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar has said the news is “shocking”, calling it a “brutal strategy to claim achievement in filling the reservoir up to 138.68 meters (full reservoir level).”
Patkar claimed, “This will leadi to a fast rise in the water level in the Sardar Sarovar Dam. If it reaches the highest level anywhere then a large number of of families of farmers, adivasis, fisherpeople, herdsmen etc, anywhere up to 32000, will face watery calamity. It will not be mob lynching but mass lynching.”
Meanwhile, Surendra Singh Baghel, Minister for Narmada Valley Authority, Madhya Pradesh, has held dialogue with a few hundred representatives of project affected persons at Krishi Upaj Mandi, Badwani, under the leadership of Patkar. She said, “NBA will decide its next move soon.”

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