GANGA 58th Issue | Page 8

7 ) Jobat Dam Jobat Project ( Shaheed Chandra Shekar Azad Sagar ) was completed in the year 2007-08 on River Hathni ( a tributary of Narmada on right bank ) in Jhabua Distt . It will irrigate agriculture land in Dhar distt . The estimated cost of the project was Rs . 166.43 Crores . The project envisages construction of a 38.60 m high and 462.50 m long composite gravity dam . The main canal of length 29.73 km is on the left bank . The area to be irrigated will be 9848 ha ., with the proposed annual irrigation going up to 12,507 ha ., according to the DPR of the Project . The Project has no power generation component . The reservoir lake is spread over in an area of about 13.10 sq . km and creates a storage of 77.84 M Cum . 13 villages of Jhabua district are partially affected from the submergence of the project . Out of total submergence of 1310.09 hectares of land getting submerged , 798.49 ha of private land , 388.38 ha of Govt . land and 123.22 ha of Forest land is affected . 909 families displaced from the project have been rehabilitated in Umda , Chhoti Khattali , Machalia , Waskal and Bhiti villages as per State Rehabilitation Policy . The command area lies in 27 villages of the Kukshi block of Dhar district . The topography of the command area is highly undulating .
Project Affected families entitled to rehabilitation , as per the MP rehabilitation policy for Narmada Projects . Amongst the adivasis from Alirajpur district who had deposed before the IIP Tribunal , alleging legal and human rights violations and raising serious issues with regard to rehabilitation of a few thousand project affected and environmental non-compliance . In their complains , people alleged that the land acquisition for Jobat was carried out using misinformation , force , deceit and intimidation i . e . in violation of the accepted human rights standards and without following the PESA Act . People also pointed out that due to faulty surveys , more land than stated has actually been submerged and there may be further submergence . Many lands and houses have also become marooned and are facing acute difficulties , particularly during the monsoon period . Ill-planned canals are also causing water logging and salinization in the nearby villages and also increasing the risk of vectorborne diseases such as malaria . The Collector ’ s survey in 2008 reaffirmed all these flaws . GRA , though it has claimed can only address individual grievances , has not done anything effectively , people have told .
Editor- Sujit Choudhury , Published by Girija
Sankar Chattopadhay , IRBMS , assisted by C S
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Integrated River Basin Management Society