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Gujarat Development Diary: Sardar Sarovar Politics

Sardar Sarovar, water, and land are at the heart of rural prosperity and unrest in Gujarat, writes YK Alagh.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicates the Sardar Sarovar Dam to the nation, in Gujarat on September 17, 2017. (Photograph: PIB)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicates the Sardar Sarovar Dam to the nation, in Gujarat on September 17, 2017. (Photograph: PIB)

Sardar Sarovar, water, and land are at the heart of rural prosperity and unrest in Gujarat. The quantity of water available — in relation to need — is important both for agriculture and drinking water purposes. The coverage of supplies is critical since promises have been made — not all very responsibly — and now the hour of redemption has come. The spread of the benefits by area and quantity and also by sector, since water has been also used, somewhat recklessly given the water short regime, for entertainment purposes like riverfront projects when it was temporarily flowing into the sea, have all become issues. Farmer groups have gone to court on ‘their’ share of water being given away to urban areas.

On account of the litany of issues, it seems as if the traditional forbearance of the kisan (farmer) is still wearing thin. In villages in what we call the Chuwahl, the land of forty-four villages, there is an air of scepticism as if they have seen it all before. Pratap Singh wants me to get some money for the girls living in the hostel they have built with some help from me. I tell him money for running the hostel is more difficult than to build it, but I will check with the Tata Trusts. The place is industrialising at a rapid pace and the farmers really want a good price for their land. Lalji Desai had, a few years ago, started the agitation against the Special Investment Region and my friend and former Finance Minister of Gujarat Sanat Mehta took me along when they brought in a thousand tractors with entire families loaded on in protest. That hangover from the 2013 protest in Mehsana district's Baucharaji talukla is there and any day it can go over the precipice. But for the time being it holds.

The background of all this is the fact that water started flowing into the main canal the year Prime Minister Narendra Modi took over as Chief Minister of Gujarat.

Now, the main canal is quite a sight. To give a parallel to Dlliwallahs, when full it is like the Yamuna in high flood. This was happening for the first time in Gujarat’s civilisational history.

(Image: Sardar Sarovar Dam website.)
(Image: Sardar Sarovar Dam website.)

The canals were not ready so the farmers pumped out the water. The irrigation authorities were aghast, but having planned Sardar Sarovar I asked them to lay off because it is better that the farmer pumps out the water rather than it goes into the sea since the authorities had not built the canals as originally planned. But then Madhya Pradesh started using its share, so now the water is running short.

Meanwhile, we were very laid back in building the canal network.

Sixteen years down, the NITI Aayog tells us that a third of the canal network has yet to be built.

In any case, it was not built the way as designed so because the computer controls have not been installed and every few years we get a promise that it will be done. At an Express Adda, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, when asked, said land acquisition is a problem. It is so but now the kisan’s temper is running short.

In a village in the Bahl which separates the mainland from Saurashtra, I found the farmer growing irrigated Bt cotton rather than the famous Bhaliya wheat; a Durum wheat variety which fetches a high price. No self-respecting Gujarati household will eat rotlis made with Mexican varieties because the ‘lot’ is not the same as the Bhaliyas.

I asked a farmer near Tarapur who was getting Narmada water why he had switched away from wheat. He said he was irrigating with the Narmada water which came to them for drinking water purposes. But since it was uncontrolled, the wheat got a pest he called Jiru. A little to the north they want the water to reach the tail end of the Vallabhipur Branch Canal. In the beginning, it seemed they would get it. Now they don’t, when they want it in a water scarcity year. This year the Kharif rains came late but they did not get water for timely sowing and that means output and money loss. This area is close to the ceramic tile makers and they too want water. Everywhere in Gujarat, factories want water and so do people for drinking and farmers for their fields.

Prime Minister  Narendra Modi at the Sardar Sarovar Dam, in Gujarat on September 17, 2017. (Photograph: PIB)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Sardar Sarovar Dam, in Gujarat on September 17, 2017. (Photograph: PIB)

It all boils over to the authorities. If only they were more efficient and completed works on time, we wouldn’t have to fight each other. Perhaps true for Narmada waters but nobody wants to accept that we are also short of water.

Per capita water availability in Gujarat is as bad as Sahelian Africa which is supposed to be a basket case.

‘Ah, pan ame to Gujarati chhe. Haanji pan aapan ne pahn manvu pedhche ki pani occha che ane aapan ne kashu karvu pedshe.’ (Yes, but we are Gujaratis. Sure, but we will also have to accept that water availability is short and we have to do something about that.)

Will the traditional forbearance hold or will the cup of woes flow over?

I am cheesed off, but then I am the grandfather of Sardar Sarovar Project planning. Anyway, we will find out what people think of all this on December 18, by noon. I am also often asked to predict the election. Now, I follow every election very closely and have a consistent record in forecasting the results. I am always wrong. So much for the forecasts of a past president of The Indian Econometric Society.

Yoginder K Alagh is Chancellor of the Central University of Gujarat. He was the Chairman of the Institute of Rural Management, Anand; and Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Planning and Programme Implementation from 1996 to 1998.

The views expressed here are those of the author’s and do not necessarily represent the views of BloombergQuint or its editorial team.