NEW DELHI: Months before the year-end Gujarat polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday turned the spotlight back on his development agenda for the second time in less than a week, dedicating the Sardar Sarovar Project to the nation close on the heels of announcing a high-speed Ahmedabad-Mumbai rail corridor during Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe’s visit last week.
The BJP, battling the Patidar agitation fuelled apparently by dwindling incomes of drought-hit farmers, has of late been seen as banking on Dalit and Other Backward Castes votes to win the poll. Gujarat party leaders are also hoping the dam waters will cool tempers of farmers and the Patidars, thereby giving the BJP a chance to go for Amit Shah’s ambitious target of winning 150-plus seats in the 182-member Gujarat Legislature.
The increase in height of the dam has enhanced its capacity to 4.73 million acre-feet. Saurashtra and Kutch account for about 56 percent of Gujarat’s area but share only about 20 percent of its water resources. Now, 20 lakh hectares of agricultural land will have access to irrigation and drinking water.
Modi on Sunday also reviewed the progress in construction of the “Statue of Unity” of Sardar Patel, which is likely to be completed by June 2018. Apart from the tourism potential, the BJP hopes the statue will stir the pride of the Patidar Patels and prompt them to stick with the party in the Gujarat elections.
Rajasthan CM Raje heaves sigh of relief
Waters of the Sardar Sarovar dam will also reach Rajasthan’s parched Barmer and Jhunjhunu districts, where CM Vasundhara Raje has increasingly been facing farmers’ fury. With the Narmada waters raising hopes of easing the perennial fear of drought, Raje could heave a sigh of relief ahead of the Rajasthan polls next year