Special Correspondent
The decision to suspend the project to link the Tapi, Par and the Narmada rivers in Gujarat has been taken with an eye on the Assembly polls and is a gimmick, the Congress said on Wednesday.
Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly Sukhram Rathva and Navasari MLA Anant Patel, who were leading mass protests in the State against the project, addressed a joint press conference along with Rajya Sabha members Shaktisinh Gohil and Naranbhai Rathwa.
However, party’s working president Hardik Patel, who was meant to be part of the press conference, was missing.
“The project was announced by the Gujarat government. But after they realised the people’s anger over it, BJP State president C.R. Paatil announced that it would be stalled and their party workers burst fire crackers,” Mr. Gohil said.
Mr. Rathva said the move is to pacify the tribals before the elections.
A tribal leader himself, he said 50,000 homes in the tribal–dominated areas of south Gujarat would be submerged and lakhs of people would be displaced.
“We [Anant Patel and him] decided that whether or not the Congress takes up the issue, we will speak for our people. Tribals would lose their land, their forest, displaced and would become helpless. The Congress then gave us the platform. When the BJP realised that their political ground is slipping, they made the announcement to suspend the project,” Mr. Rathva said.
“It’s about tribal identity, their culture, their forests that are hundreds of years old. Everything is at stake,” Mr. Patel said, adding that the fight will continue until the government scraps it.
Faced with desertions and a growing challenge from the Aam Admi Party in Gujarat, the Congress has been trying to build its election campaign on core issues such as the river–linking project and the mismanagement during the second phase of COVID–19 among others.
