The tribals in Gujarat held a public meeting in Kaprada in Valsad district to protest against the Centre’s Par Tapi Narmada (PTN) river-linking project.

Par Tapi Narmada river-linking project

• The PTN link project was envisioned under the 1980 National Perspective Plan under the former Union Ministry of Irrigation and the Central Water Commission (CWC).
• The project proposes to transfer river water from the surplus regions of the Western Ghats to the deficit regions of Saurashtra and Kutch.
• It proposes to link three rivers — Par, originating from Nashik in Maharashtra and flowing through Valsad, Tapi from Saputara that flows through Maharashtra and Surat in Gujarat, and Narmada originating in Madhya Pradesh and flowing through Maharashtra and Bharuch and Narmada districts in Gujarat.

Components of the project

• The link mainly includes the construction of seven dams (Jheri, Mohankavchali, Paikhed, Chasmandva, Chikkar, Dabdar and Kelwan), three diversion weirs and two tunnels.
• Of these, the Jheri dam falls in Nashik, while the remaining dams are in Valsad and Dang districts of South Gujarat.

Centre’s role

• A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Gujarat, Maharashtra and the central government on May 3, 2010.
• It envisaged that Gujarat would get the benefit of the Par Tapi Narmada link project through en-route irrigation from the link canal and in the drought-prone Saurashtra Kutch region by way of substitution.

Issues with the Project

• About 6065 hectares of land area will be submerged due to the proposed reservoirs.
• A total of 61 villages will be affected, of which one will be fully submerged and the remaining 60 partly.
• The total number of affected families would be 2,509 of which 98 families would be affected due to the creation of the Jheri reservoir, the only one in Maharashtra, spread over six villages.
• The affected families may lose their lands or houses or both in the submergence when the reservoirs are created.
• The districts where the project will be implemented are largely dominated, by tribals who fear displacement.

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