Page 145 - Swatantrata to Atmanirbharta : Lokmanya Tilak’s legacy

country. It was started without carrying out the studies required
by the Ministry of Environment which stopped the project for
this reason towards the end of 1969. Moreover, the project had
no proper plan for the rehabilitation of people who would be
displaced because of their lands going under water due to the
dam construction.
Medha Patkar, a socialist activist and a few NGOs with
similar ideology started an agitation for stopping the work on
the project; because there were no satisfactory plans for the
rehabilitation of prospective displaced people, and because the
dam would damage/alter the ecosystem. Rather than forcing
the bureaucracy to fulfill all the conditions of the Ministry of
Environment and make judicious plans for the rehabilitation
of the affected people; the social activists led by Medha Patkar
chose to agitate for stopping the work on the project and for
abandoning it.
After overcoming many hurdles, Narmada dam project
was finally completed in 2017 after a delay of about 48 years.
During this time, the cost-outlay escalated, which was a loss to
India’s national wealth. Moreover, it deprived 40 million people
the benefits of development for about half a century. Who is
responsible for this loss and depravity? It is impossible to answer
this question because there is no sense of accountability in
Indian society or the constitution. There is a need to change this
mindset of irresponsibility and unaccountability. Academicians
can bring this change by educating the people in Lokmanya’s
thoughts.

POSCO Project
It was proposed to establish world’s biggest integrated steel
plant at Paradip in Odisha, in collaboration with POSCO, a
South Korean steel behemoth. The socialist narrative opposed
the project on the grounds that it would cause great hardship
to the local people of Paradip by way of displacement, land
acquisition of valuable land including betel leaf cultivation,
and environmental degradation. An additional objection was
that the project would permanently deplete precious iron ore
resources. A feeling was built that foreign companies should

143 Swatantrata to Atmanirbharata