Even after 16 years, Urmodi project’s fate hangs fire

Satara’s Shiv Sena MP Hindurao Naik-Nimbalkar has invited Chief Minister Manohar Joshi for the bhoomipujan which is slated for November 7. Naik- Nimbalkar wants to leave nothing to chance. Aware that there will be stiff opposition to the bhoomipujan from Left-dominated organisations of the Project Affected People (PAPs), he has even undertaken a long march to drum up support for his CM and the dam.

But it is not just the PAPs who are coming in the way of the second kick-off. Within the Sena itself, tempers are running short at the thought of Naik-Nimbalkar, a former Congressman, walking away with all the credit The Government run-Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation — its creation has been the only tangible effort by the Sena-BJP government for western Maharashtra — and the saffron cadres in Satara do not share the same views on the Sena MP’s long-march.

The two MKVDC vice-presidents – independent MLA Ram Raje Naik-Nimbalkar and Udayan Raje Bhosale who joined the BJP recently – have chosen to watch from the sidelines.

"At a time when the concept of a string of irrigation dams in the Krishna basin is still a distant dream, this tussle within the Sena might end up prolonging Urmodi’s agony," say some Satara residents.

More than the pressure groups, it is politicking that threatens to bog the project. Most dam sites in the Krishna basin and in which Maharashtra is expected to create an infrastructure by May, 2000 to `impound’ its share of the Krishna waters — are in the bastions of Congress MLAs.

As if this were not enough, the command areas lie in the strongholds of independents who have traditionally gone the Congress way but are currently backing the Sena-BJP government. "These geographical equations will prove to be a major problem for the Sena-BJP alliance which is trying hard to make a dent in sugar-rich western Maharashtra," points out a senior Congressman who has been hobnobbing with the Sena.

The Urmodi dam was first conceived as a reservoir with 3.5 thousand million cubic (TMC) feet capacity. At that time, the issue of rehabilitation was confined to people in only 16 villages. But when the project was re-designed to be a 10.5 TMC reservoir, probably because it was thought that Maharashtra would lose its share of the Krishna waters if not `impounded’ before May 2000, the issue of rehabilitation became that of 38 villages.The Congressmen in Satara, on their part, are doing all they can to revive the campaigns against the Urmodi and Tarali dams. They are in no mood to let Naik-Nimbalkar, the Sena MP, get away with "all that the Shiv Sena has done for the Krishna basin".

The MP is at the moment on his long-march from Shikhar Shingnapur in the command area of Urmodi to fort Sajjangad which was once the headquarters of Shivaji’s political guru Samarth Ramdas. Naik-Nimbalkar and his followers plan to converge at Sajjangad, next to the dam site, on the day of the bhoomipujan.

The invitation to Joshi not only has the Congress locking horns with the Sena but also the PAPs.

Last Sunday, an action committee of the dam affected held a rally at Pophalkarwadi and warned the Government against holding the bhoomipujan.

PAPs leader Sampatrao Bhosale, who calls this a betrayal of their interests, sees a `political design’ behind the renewed effort to commence construction of the dam.Bhosale says the rehabilitation issue, which led to the riots in 1981, has still not been settled. So will Urmodi’s second bhoomipujan, if it does take place, end its agonisingly long wait?