Supreme Court today cleared the
decks for the construction of the controversial Sardar Sarovar Dam
on the Narmada river which will benefit three states of
Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat as per the tribunal
award but made any further construction subject to clearance
from environmental and rehabilitation authority.
The dam, at present, has a height of 88 metre but the
court last year had given clearance for the construction till
the height of 90 metre. The tribunal envisages the maximum
height of the dam at 138 metre.
"Construction of the dam will continue as per the award
of the tribunal keeping in mind the cost economics of the
project, " a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice A S
Anand held by a majority of two to one.
Justice S P Bharucha who gave lone dissenting judgement
ordered immediate stoppage of construction activities at the
dam site but said the work could be resumed only after the
environmental impact group of ministry of environment and
forest took a detailed survey of the project and cleared it.
The majority judgement written by Justice B N Kirpal said
the construction work of the dam till a height of 90 metre
could be taken up immediately saying the relief and
rehabilitation of the oustees has been carried out
satisfactorly by three state governments of Maharashtra, MP
and Gujarat.
The bench said for the construction in stages however,
will depend on the clearences given by the environmental
impact group and authorities monitoring the rehabilitation
work.
Narmada Bachao Andolan, the NGO led by Medha Patkar in
1994 challenged in Supreme Court the construction of 18,000
crore Sarder Sarovar Dam Project on the ground that the tribal
oustees were not rehabilitated properly and environmental
damages on such a dam would be huge.
Justice Kirpal with whom Chief Justice Anand concurred
said "the environmental sub-group in
the ministry of environment and forest will consider all aspects before giving
clearance to construction at each stage beyond 90 metre".
The court said "report of the grievance redressal
authority had pointed out that in Madhya Pradesh there is
considerable slackness in identifying and acquiring land for
the oustees".
It directed the states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and
Gujarat to implement the award of the tribunal expeditiously
for proper relief and rehabilition of oustees.
The Narmada control authority will draw up a plan within
four weeks and the relief and rehabilitation work needed to be
carried out.
Any dispute on this shall go before the review
committee, the court said and added that if any dispute still
remained it shall be referred to Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee whose decision shall be final and binding.
