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Narmada dam work to resume on Tuesday

After four years, the drone of machines will resound in the valley. Construction was suspended in 1996, after Narmada Bachao Andolan activists obtained a stay order from the apex court, raising several environmental and rehabilitation-related issues.

Senior officials of neighbouring districts have been camping in this small town and the state highway has been closed for inter-state traffic, to help manage the local crowd that is expected to throng for the ceremony.

Officials connected with the project said the supply of potable water to northern parts of the state is likely to begin in the middle of 2001, resulting in a Green Revolution'.

''The people are very happy with the Supreme Court judgement allowing resumption of work, because it will provide potable water to large parts of the state,'' they added.

The Gujarat government has invited all Opposition members to the ceremony, and the name of Opposition leader Amar Sinh Chaudhary figures.

The chief ministers of Rajasthan and Maharashtra and the deputy chief minister of Madhya Pradesh will also participate in the function.

Meanwhile, the apex court Monday declined to fix an early date for hearing an application by the NBA, seeking clarifications on its recent judgement.

The early hearing was declined by a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice A S Anand.

NBA counsel Prashant Bhushan was told by the court, ''It will not be possible to disturb the hearing schedule of the court right now. You file the application in the registry and it will come up in due course.''

The other judges on the bench were Justices R C Lahoti and Brijesh Kumar.

The NBA application seeks clarification on the October 18 judgement and order of the court on whether permission for construction of the dam up to 90 metres was inclusive or exclusive of the ''humps''.

The NBA also wanted to know whether the permission for construction of up to 90 metres was based on the assumption that the relief and rehabilitation sub-group had granted such permission and would still be operative if the premise and assumption were known and shown to be incorrect.

This clarification was also required as such permission for immediate construction of up to 90 metres would be in clear violation of the award of the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal, since the court had directed that all further construction can only be done in conformity with the award after conditions for rehabilitation have been met.

These clarifications were most urgently required since the Gujarat Government had announced that it was starting further construction on the dam Tuesday pursuant to orders of the court.

The application also says that it was being made without prejudice to the petitioners' right to file an application for the review of the judgement.

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