Bhopal: Instead of worrying about the thousands of families being forced to leave their homes and hearths due to the impending submergence of a huge area in Narmada valley, minister for Narmada Valley Development (Independent charge) Lal Singh Arya is busy campaigning for the urban civic body polls. Vast areas in four districts of the state will go under water because of the decision to fill water up to a higher level in the Sardar Sarovar Dam reservoir. But the minister is yet to the visit the area even once. For the past many days, Arya was in Bhopal and in his assembly constituency Gohad. But he could not find time to visit the submergence zone.
Four districts – Dhar, Badwani, Alirajpur and Khargone – are in the submergence zone and according to government figures, around 72,000 persons will be displaced. Over 15,000 families are yet to be rehabilitated but the minister is unconcerned. CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been consistently telling his colleagues to be on the move. But Arya, apparently, does not care. When asked, he recently said the local MLAs and minister in-charge were monitoring the situation!
Arya is just parroting the figures being supplied to him by NVDA officers. He is holding this department for past three years but he is not showing any seriousness in dealing with the situation. To protest the minister’s apathy, AAP activists staged a demonstration before his bungalow here on Thursday. They had even brought a car with them. They wanted to offer it to the minister to enable him to tour the affected area. They said even drinking water was not available in the resettlement areas and the minister was peddling fake figures supplied to him by officers ensconced in air-conditioned chambers. They said the minister should better visit the area, apprise himself of the facts and tell the truth to the people. Leader of opposition Ajay Singh has also criticised the minister for not visiting the affected area.
