India News | Citing Displacement of Tribals, Guj Cong MLAs Protest Against Par-Tapi-Narmada River Link Project
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Several Gujarat Congress leaders, including state unit president Jagdish Thakor, were detained by police on Friday as they tried to march towards the Assembly complex to register their protest against the proposed Par-Tapi-Narmada river link project, which it claimed will displace tribal residents of the region.
Gandhinagar, Mar 25 (PTI) Several Gujarat Congress leaders, including state unit president Jagdish Thakor, were detained by police on Friday as they tried to march towards the Assembly complex to register their protest against the proposed Par-Tapi-Narmada river link project, which it claimed will displace tribal residents of the region.
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Before the police detained around 80 Congress workers and leaders from Satyagrah Chhavni ground in sector 6, some15 Congress MLAs staged a walk out on the same issue just minutes before the House proceedings ended for the day.
Hundreds of tribals had gathered for the 'Adivasi Satyagrah', a rally organised by the Congress to raise issues concerning tribals and to protest against the dams proposed to be constructed on Par river in south Gujarat as part of the Union government's river link project, said Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi.
When the Congress workers and leaders started marching towards the Assembly on the appeal of Jagdish Thakor, police swung into action and detained nearly 80 protestors, including Thakor, Gujarat Congress in-charge Dr. Raghu Sharma, state working president Hardik Patel, Leader of Opposition Sukhram Rathva, former LoP Paresh Dhanani and former state unit president Amit Chavda among others.
"We have detained nearly 80 protestors as police did not give any permission to the organisers to hold this foot march. We will release them after completing legal procedures," said Gandhinagar Range Inspector General Abhay Chudasama.
During the day's discussion on budgetary demands for the Tribal Development Department, Congress MLAs came down heavily on the ruling BJP.
Mandvi Congress MLA Anand Chaudhary asked the government to clarify its stand about the river linking project as he suspected the tribals of south Gujarat will have to give up their land for the construction of dams.
In his reply, Tribal Development minister Naresh Patel assured the House the state government will not go ahead with any project which involves displacement of tribals, adding that the intention was to build check-dams on rivers and supply the stored water to tribals for irrigation.
Unhappy with the minister's assurance, nearly 15 MLAs present in the House, including Deputy LoP Shailesh Parmar, staged a walkout just minutes before the budgetary demands were passed with a majority vote.
As per the India Water Resources Information System, the Par-Tapi-Narmada river link project proposes to transfer water from surplus regions of Western Ghats to deficit regions of Saurashtra and Kutch, with the work including building seven reservoirs in north Maharashtra and south Gujarat.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)