Sushma Swaraj strongly opposed dams on Ganga to ‘save’ Uttarakhand

Dehradun: With Joshimath reeling under severe crisis after hundreds of buildings developed cracks due to shifting soil, an old video of late BJP leader Sushma Swaraj has surfaced where she warns of an imminent threat to Uttarakhand from dams being built on the Ganga river.

In the video being widely shared on social media and flashed on news channels, Swaraj is seen saying in Parliament that the dams being built on the Ganga and its tributaries will have to be scrapped to save Uttarakhand in the wake of the 2013 Kedarnath disaster.

This assumes significance as questions are being raised on the role of NTPC’s Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel project in the land subsidence crisis in Joshimath. Swaraj was addressing the Lok Sabha as the then Leader of Opposition. “Whatever amount of money may have been spent over them (dams), it will be less than the amount that will have to be spent over relief and rehabilitation of the displaced,” she had said in 2013.

Swaraj also says in her address, “It is not just a coincidence, I want to tell the House that on 16 June 2013, the Dhari Devi temple was submerged, the same day there was a deluge in Kedarnath and everything was destroyed.” NTPC’s 520-MW Tapovan-Vishnugad hydroelectric project is under construction on Dhauliganga, a tributary of river Ganga, in the area adjacent to Joshimath and the local people are holding the project responsible for the land subsidence.