No negotiations with MP on SSP -- Keshubhai

No negotiations with MP on SSP -- Keshubhai
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

BARODA, SEPT 10: Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel today ruled out negotiations with Madhya Pradesh over the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam on river Narmada, saying his counterpart Digvijay Singh's stand on it was known.

Talking to newspersons here, Patel said Singh had backed out of the agreement reached on the issue by the beneficiary-States in Delhi in 1997 in the presence of then prime minister H D Deve Gowda.

Under the agreement, the height of the dam was fixed at 436 feet, to be raised to 455 feet, after studying the availability of water in the Narmada during the next five years.

``Singh, who was a party to the agreement, changed his stand on reaching Bhopal. So the question of negotiations does not arise and the matter is in the Supreme Court,'' Patel said.

Patel reiterated his offer on rehabilitating the project-affected people from Madhya Pradesh in Gujarat if Madhya Pradesh did not have land to rehabilitate them.

The Chief Minister was here to address two public meetings in support of BJP candidates, contesting the local civic polls, due on September 17.