Return
to Story Page
To print: Select File and then Print from your
browser's menu
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
AHMEDABAD/VADODARA, Dec 2: Narmada Jan Andolan leader Sharad Joshi has reiterated his resolve to perform kar seva at Kevadia Colony and termed attempts by the State Government to stall it as fascist. ``We will court arrest and insist that we be remanded if the kar seva is not allowed'', he said.
Before leaving for Vadodara, Joshi told reporters here on Thursday that he was not going to heed any advice from Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel on the issue ``howsoever well intentioned the advice may be''. He termed Keshubhai's government as ``barbarian'' for denying drinking water facility to those converging at Kevadia.
He parried queries on how Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar was supporting the kar seva, saying that Pawar was right now busy with Orissa affairs. But he claimed Congress leaders from Gujarat like Urmilaben Patel, Sanat Mehta and Satyajit Gaekwad were supporting it. ``Sanat Mehta will lead one of the groups while Gaekwad has already said he is all for the cause and is willing to face any consequence''.
He claimed Keshubhai had turned hostile to the Narmada cause and shared a ``lot of commonality with Medha Patkar'' and that he was misleading the people by suppressing details of the Supreme Court hearing on the Narmada issue.
Meanwhile, nothing seems to have dampened the spirits of the NJA activists regardless of yet another blow to their cause with key members of Setu organisation Raghavji Raiyani and former cop Jadeja withdrawing.
``The number of persons reaching the dam site might reduce looking to State Government restrictions but we will definitely pour water in the canal,'' asserted Congress leader Urmila Patel and Bipin Desai of Gujarat Khedut Samaj besides president of Vadodara Khedut Samaj Vipin Patel.
Patel said there was no question of talking about security threats as the activists would not do it any harm.
Reacting to the State Government's reported instructions to BJP workers to stop the kar sevaks right at the village levels, Desai said it was a fascist way of functioning.
Meanwhile, former MP Sanat Mehta has opposed Madhya Pradesh chief Minister Digvijay Singh's views which are not in favour of the Irrigation By-pass Tunnel (IBPT). Reacting to Singh's earlier letter to Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhhai Patel, Mehta has urged the CM not to use the IBPT as a tool to reduce the height of the Narmada dam.
Reminding Singh that Madhya Pradesh had twice agreed on IBPT in the past, Mehta said that in an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, Government of India said that the IBPT was a technical necessity in the event of shut down of canal head power house besides to facilitate early benefits from the project.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
------------------------------------------------------------
This story was printed from Net Express located at http://www.expressindia.com. Net Express provides a portal to India, with news from The Indian Express and The Financial Express along with sites on travel and tourism, the entertainment industry, the power sector, the environment and much more.
------------------------------------------------------------