VISHWA HINDU Parishad (VHP) chief Ashok Singhal today announced his plan to stage an indefinite fast at Tehri Dam from March 30 in protest against the Vajpayee Government's refusal to stop work on the project. Claiming that the blockage of the Ganga, to
fill the dam reservoir, would affect the purity of its water, he said he would not withdraw from the fast till the government gave an assurance that it would halt work on the project.
Mr Singhal and BJP MP Swami Chinmayanand stated that a large number of sants would accompany them on the dharna at the dam site to oppose the Tehri Hydel Power Corporation's plan to block the river from March 31. The decision had been taken by the Dharm
Sansad at the recent Mahakumbh in Allahabad.
The flow of the river would be stopped for three years to fill the enormous reservoir spread across 42 sq km area, they said, adding that the purity of the water in the holy river, with which were linked the sentiments of crores of Hindus, would be
affected.
"The sants have decided that under no circumstance would they allow the Ganga to be stopped. We met Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in this regard last month and he assured us that something would be done. But, yesterday, we received an urgent message
from Sunderlal Bahuguna informing us that the dam authorities propose to close the tunnels from this month-end," Mr Singhal told newspersons. The VHP had been forced to undertake this desperate measure as a last resort only when all their efforts during
the past 10 years had failed, he said. The VHP would be satisfied if the government stopped work on the dam even at the current stage and instead turned to power generation through 'run-of-the-river' system.
Mr Singhal said they favoured construction of small dams in place of a large one which also ran the risk of collapsing in the event of a quake. Swami Chinmayanand pointed out that Tehri and Uttarkashi were located in the same category of seismic zones as
Bhuj and Anjar in Gujarat that suffered tremendous devastation recently.
If a quake of the magnitude of 8 on the Richter scale rocked the region, the 800-feet high Tehri Dam was very likely to crumble down. In the ensuing deluge, towns as far as Rishikesh, Hardwar and Bulandshahr would be completely wiped out while, the MP
stressed.
