Tehelka:Soumik Mukherjee:Friday, February 03, 2012.
The Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) has demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the purchase of power by the Madhya Pradesh government from the controversial Maheshwar Hydro-Electric project after a recent Right to Information Act (RTI) application revealed that the rate would be as high as Rs 10 per unit.
According to the RTI, filed by NBA, the price per unit is much higher compared with the tariff of two other upcoming hydro-electric projects in the state purchase from Essar Power and Torrent Power will cost Rs 2.45 and Rs 3.31 respectively. Buying power at Rs 10 per unit will cost the state an additional 21,000 crore annually.
The Maheshwar project, a venture of the S Kumars group, is one of the largest ongoing dam projects on river Narmada. Sixty-one villages having 10,000 families would be submerged due to the project, NBA member Chittaroopa Palit alleged at a press conference here on Thursday.
Another NBA member Alok Agarwal demanded that the project should be scrapped right away after the reply to the RTI application. “There should be an independent CBI probe into the issue, including all politicians and bureaucrats involved in the project,” said Agarwal.
Being a hydro-electric project, 80 per cent of electricity is generated in monsoon. According to Agarwal, the project is irrelevant in terms of the state’s electricity requirement since 40 per cent of the power is used in irrigating agricultural fields, there is no need for irrigation in monsoon. “Why should the government pay extra amount of public money for power which is not required?” he asked.
The Maheshwar project has been the subject of a decade-old agitation. The project, which was given a go-ahead by the Ministry of Environment and Forest, was halted on grounds of poor rehabilitation process for the 10,000 displaced families.
However, the then-Minister of Environment Jairam Ramesh gave it green signal referring to discussions between Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan and former CM Digvijay Singh. Citing the correspondence between Chauhan and Singh, senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan accused the latter of corruption. Calling the Supreme Court order on 2G historical, Bhushan alleged that Singh was more corrupt than Home Minister P Chidambaram. Bhushan, who is also a senior member of Team Anna and India Against Corruption campaign, added that only a strong Lokpal could curb such “cases of irregularities and corruption”.
Soumik Mukherjee is a Photo Correspondent with Tehelka. soumik@tehelka.com
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