New Delhi: The Supreme Court will today hear affidavits filed by four states on the status of rehabilitation work done for those displaced by the Sardar Sarovar dam.
The four states include Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan which have filed affidavits on the court’s orders.
A Government of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, in its affidavit declared that relocation work was mostly completed where as Gujarat’s affidavit said that all rehabilitation work was completed.
The apex court had on April 15 said that it would stop the ongoing construction work at the Sardar Sarovar Dam, if the rehabilitation work was not done in accordance with its earlier judgement and directive of the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal.
A special Bench headed by Chief Justice Y K Sabbharwal, however, gave a week time to all the concerned parties to file their replies to the petition filed by the Narmada Bachao Andolan and the application moved by the Centre.
It was hearing a petition filed by Narmada Bachao Andolan, seeking suspension of the construction at the dam.
The Court, however, clarified that the Centre and the Prime Minister were free to decide whether the work on the controversial dam will continue or not during this period.
The Court had also advised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to rise above party politics and take bold steps for the rehabilitation of the displaced people.
The Court had said that the construction work on the Sardar Sarovar Project on Narmada River and rehabilitation of the people displaced by it should go on side by side.
The Centre said that the displaced people would be rehabilitated before August 2006.
On March 8, 2006, the Narmada Control Authority decided to raise the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam from 110.64 metres to 121.92 metres.

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