Narmada 'lie': BJP & Congress spar over irrigation figures

  • | Tuesday | 16th July, 2019

The BJP and Congress clashed over the extent of land being irrigated by the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Dam waters in the Assembly on Monday. "The state has said that irrigation facilities is available for 16 lakh ha. Even Chief Minister Vijay Rupani challenged Dhanani to show from where he got the 6 lakh ha figure. Let him at least point to the 6 lakh ha figure anywhere in the entire Socio-Economic Report," an angry Rupani challenged Dhanani. Of these, only 6.73 lakh ha is being used.

The BJP and Congress clashed over the extent of land being irrigated by the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Dam waters in the Assembly on Monday. The BJP sought special permission from the Speaker to give a rebuttal to Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani's earlier statement in the house that there was a difference of 10 lakh ha in the figures given by the state government and those mentioned in the Socio-Economic Survey Report of the government over actual land irrigated by Narmada water. Last week Dhanani had said Narmada waters had reached only 6 lakh ha of farmlands as per the Socio-Economic Survey against the state government's claims of over 16 lakh hectares. Patel presented the Social Economic Survey of 2018-19 and specified that on page 20 the report indeed mentioned that against the capacity of over 17 lakh hectare, irrigation facilities were built in over 16 lakh ha. "I would like the Leader of Opposition to either apologise for misleading the house or tell us how he arrived at the figure," demanded Patel. Dhanani, on his part, stuck to his statement and said that he was talking about actual irrigation and not just canals. "The state has said that irrigation facilities is available for 16 lakh ha. There is a difference between facilities being made and water reaching the farmers. I stick to what I had said because Narmada water is not reaching farmers despite the facilities," said Dhanani. Patels' statement and Dhanani's counter-statement led to the commotion with MLAs of both Congress and BJP standing up to register their opposition. Even Chief Minister Vijay Rupani challenged Dhanani to show from where he got the 6 lakh ha figure. "Let the Leader of Opposition show us where he got the figure from. Let him at least point to the 6 lakh ha figure anywhere in the entire Socio-Economic Report," an angry Rupani challenged Dhanani. Only 6L HA Irrigated: Report A budget analysis by Pathey, a Centre that anlaysis budge allocation, has also stated that the against the actual potential of 17.91 lakh ha of irrigation facility as of June 2018, only 16.11 lakh ha has been created. Of these, only 6.73 lakh ha is being used. In fact, the report says that only 41.78% of the irrigation capacity that has been built is being used

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