Narendra Modi : Centre politicising gate installation at Narmada dam
Gujarat Chief Minister and BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra
Modi on Monday alleged that the Centre was ignoring the state's
repeated demand to install gates at the Sardar Sarovar dam.
"Forty years after Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation
stone of the project, the state is still fighting for the installation
of gates at Narmada dam, only because of non-cooperation from the
Congress government at Centre," Modi said in Gujarat on Monday.
He addressed a farmers' rally after laying the foundation stone
of the ambitious Rs 10,000 crore Saurashtra Narmada Avataran Irrigation
project, which will take Narmada water to 115 dams and reservoirs in
Saurashtra. Saurashtra region gets less than average rainfall, and water
shortage is a perennial problem.
Centre politicising gate installation at Narmada dam, says Narendra Modi
"I met Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) many times and sought
permission to install gates, but received a cold response... which has
annoyed all of us," Modi said, adding that the installation work would
take nearly three years. "Nearly 60 per cent of water from Narmada river
goes to waste as the dam work is incomplete, which we could save by
installing the gates," he said.
"Congress has a problem with chaiwala (tea seller), but politics
should be in its place and Congress should not scuttle the aspirations
of farmers of the Saurashtra region.
"We have an economist Prime Minister and a knowledgeable Finance
Minister, but the country's growth rate in agriculture has stagnated at
two or three per cent, while Gujarat, which is facing shortage of water,
has achieved 10 per cent growth rate," Modi said.
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