BOOKER PRIZE winning author Arundhati Roy, a passionate campaigner against the Sardar Sarovar Dam, said the Supreme Court judgement today giving the green signal for the project was "shocking and disgraceful".
"For the Court to give the go ahead for the project, when hundreds of families affected by it have not been rehabilitated or given alternative agricultural land shows that the issue of basic human rights has been completely ignored," Ms Roy told UNI.
Praising the dissenting judgement of Justice S.P. Bharucha for striking the right note of caution, Ms Roy said the judge had observed that the environmental consequences of the project had not been examined at the time of clearance and work on the site
should be stopped forthwith, pending an environmental assessment.
While the majority judgement said that the Narmada Control Authority would draw up an action plan for further construction and relief and rehabilitation, the Authority's earlier guidelines had not been implemented till date by the states concerned,
including Madhya Pradesh, she said.
"This shows that you can stand in front of the map of India and throw darts anywhere on it without bothering about the environmental or human costs or analysing its benefits for the people," she added.
Expressing disappointment with the judgement, the acclaimed author said that it had shown up the indifference of the urban middle and upper class to the issues at the ground level.
Ms Roy said she was not in a position to say what the next course of action of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) would be. She said she would continue to do whatever she could to mobilise public opinion on the issue.
