On 29 March 2006, Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar and two people from the Narmada valley began an indefinite fast on a pavement at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. They wanted work stopped on raising the Sardar Sarovar dam from 110.64 m to 121.92 m until displaced families were resettled. On 17 April the Supreme Court let construction continue, with a warning, and Patkar ended her fast. The dam was finished in 2017 at 138.68 m. Rehabilitation is still disputed.
Why 121.92 metres mattered
The Sardar Sarovar dam is in Gujarat, but most of the land its reservoir floods is in Madhya Pradesh. Under the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal award and Supreme Court judgments of 2000 and 2005, each increase in height could go ahead only "pari passu" with relief and rehabilitation, and only after clearance by the authority's Relief and Rehabilitation Sub-group Supreme Court order, 17 Apr 2006.
The dam stood at 90 m in 2000 and was raised in stages to 110 m. On 8 March 2006 the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) allowed work on the spillway to go from 110.64 m to 121.92 m UNI.
The NBA said nearly 35,000 families would lose homes or livelihoods to the higher water UNI. Claim · NBA Some reports gave the figure as 35,000 people, not families Amnesty International.
A fast on the pavement
NBA activists had been protesting in Delhi since 17 March PTI via Rediff. On 29 March, Patkar, Jamsingh Nargave and Bhagwatibai Patidar, both from affected villages in Madhya Pradesh, began an indefinite fast. They said the Prime Minister had not given them the response he had promised UNI.
The government tried to end it within a week. On 3 April Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sent Prithviraj Chavan, Saifuddin Soz and Meira Kumar to the dharna with a glass of fruit juice. Patkar refused it. The ministers said building and resettlement could go "side by side". The fasters said the law required resettlement first UNI.
Development does not mean displacement. Those being displaced also need justice.
Medha Patkar at the Jantar Mantar dharna, 3 Apr 2006 (UNI)
Left leaders, among them Brinda Karat of the CPI(M) and A B Bardhan of the CPI, came to the pavement UNI. By 5 April she was drinking only water and vomiting, PTI reported PTI via Rediff.
Removal to AIIMS, 5 April
Late on 5 April, Delhi Police lifted Patkar from the pavement and took her to AIIMS. PTI reported that 27 supporters were arrested on charges of rioting and obstructing public servants. Police said Patkar herself had not been arrested, but police sources said an FIR for attempted suicide had been lodged against her and she was "likely to be arrested after her health improves" PTI via Rediff. No prosecution on that FIR was found in later reports. Police also tried to move Bhagwatibai Patidar to hospital. NBA activists stopped them.
Claim · Amnesty International Amnesty said police used batons to disperse peaceful demonstrators in the "midnight action" and that about 50 activists were held overnight. It asked for an investigation Amnesty International. No police reply to these allegations appears in the reports reviewed.
Patkar kept fasting in hospital. She refused an intravenous saline drip Down To Earth. AIIMS doctors called her "stable" on 8 April UNI.
Three ministers find "largely paperwork"
Soz, Meira Kumar and Chavan reached Indore on the evening of 6 April. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's government told them resettlement would be finished by 30 June 2006. Outlook, text of GoM note.
On 7 April they visited Khalghat, Dharampuri, Lakhangaon, Borlai, Awalda, Piplud and Nisarpur. Their note, dated 9 April and published by The Hindu on 17 April, recorded:
- At Khalghat, land had been offered to 407 families and only 2 had accepted it.
- At Dharampuri, the largest resettlement site, 4,000 families were shown on paper as settled, but "not a single plot of land" was occupied and there was no drinking water, sanitation or roads.
- Oustees said they were pushed to take cash and had to pay a bribe of Rs 20,000 for each compensation cheque.
The note concluded that the sub-group reports on which the NCA had granted permission were "largely paperwork" with "no relevance with the situation on the ground" Outlook, text of GoM note.
Madhya Pradesh government's position The state disputed the note in court. Its counsel Harish Salve accused the ministers of "fudging" the names of resettlement sites and questioned their figures Tribune. In July Chouhan called the report "based on rumours and unfounded information" and asked Soz to resign UNI.
Gujarat's response and Modi's fast
The six-member Review Committee of the NCA met on 15 April and split three to three. The BJP chief ministers of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan wanted the 121.92 m work to continue. Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Soz and Environment Minister A Raja moved to suspend the permission until rehabilitation met the Supreme Court's norms Tribune.
Modi announced a 51-hour fast hours later. He accused the Centre of giving in to Patkar and said the Centre would be responsible for "any backlash" if work stopped Tribune. He began the fast on 16 April at the GMDC ground in Ahmedabad, not Sabarmati Ashram as first planned, under a banner reading "Narmada ka bandh nahin rukega aur Gujarat nahin jhukega" (the Narmada dam will not stop and Gujarat will not bow) Tribune, PTI/UNI.
Gujarat's Congress sided with the state BJP on this. It called a statewide bandh for 16 April, then called it off after Manmohan Singh assured its leaders that work on raising the dam would not be stopped, according to PTI Tribune Tribune. Pro-dam activists ransacked the NBA's Vadodara office on 15 April, police said.
The CPI(M)'s M K Pandhe called Modi's fast "politically motivated" UNI.
17 April: a warning, not a stay
A bench of Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justices K G Balakrishnan and S B Sinha heard the NBA's applications on 17 April. Shanti Bhushan read from the ministers' note for the NBA Tribune. The Centre asked for about three months to review Madhya Pradesh's rehabilitation before the monsoon Supreme Court order.
The court did not stop the work. It gave the states a week to reply, listed the case for 1 May, and added a warning:
It has been made clear to the State Governments that if the relief and rehabilitation to the unfortunate oustees are not granted in letter and spirit, this Court will have no option but to stop the on-going construction.
Supreme Court of India, order of 17 April 2006
That evening Patkar was brought from AIIMS to Jantar Mantar by ambulance and broke her 20-day fast with a glass of juice, with Arundhati Roy and Swami Agnivesh in the crowd. She called the court's warning and the ministers' report a victory. Supporters said she ended the fast under pressure from them Tribune.
Aamir Khan and the Fanaa boycott
Aamir Khan came to the dharna in mid-April with the cast and director of Rang De Basanti The Himalayan Times. He said he did not know enough to judge the height:
But what I know is that thousands of people have been affected due to the building of the dam and they have not been given proper rehabilitation by the government.
Aamir Khan at Jantar Mantar (The Himalayan Times, 15 Apr 2006)
BJP and Congress activists burnt Rang De Basanti posters in Ahmedabad, and a Vadodara cinema stopped screening it Tribune. On 23 May the Gujarat Multiplex Owners Association said none of its 22 multiplexes would show his new film Fanaa, in "solidarity with the feelings of the people of Gujarat" UNI. IANS reported that none of the state's 425 cinema halls would show it either. Ahmedabad BJP youth wing president Amit Thaker said screenings would be allowed if Khan apologised to Gujaratis IANS via Tribune.
The BJP's national spokesman Prakash Javadekar said the party was "neither for ban nor boycott" of the film UNI. Gujarat Congress spokesman Hasmukh Patel said the campaign was the BJP's "communal colour because the film star is a Muslim". IANS noted Youth Congress activists had been in the mob that stopped Rang De Basanti a month earlier IANS via Tribune. UNI reported that the Supreme Court dismissed a petition over the boycott filed by Mahesh Bhatt. On 5 June the multiplex owners said Fanaa would still not be shown UNI.
Four months in 2006
Height approved
NCA permits 110.64 m to 121.92 m.
Fast begins
Patkar, Nargave and Patidar start an indefinite fast at Jantar Mantar.
Removed to AIIMS
Police take Patkar to hospital; 27 supporters arrested.
Ministers in the valley
Soz, Meira Kumar and Chavan tour resettlement sites.
Deadlock, then Modi's fast
Review committee ties three-three; Modi begins fasting in Ahmedabad.
Court order; fast ends
Work allowed to continue under warning. Patkar breaks her fast.
Shunglu group
PM sets up an oversight group under former CAG V K Shunglu UNI.
Construction continues
Court declines to stop work after the Shunglu report.
Resettlement first, or side by side?
NBA's account
The NBA said Madhya Pradesh had not resettled even those hit at earlier heights, so raising the dam broke the tribunal award and court orders. It called the state's affidavit that rehabilitation was complete "replete with white lies" after a yatra to 12 villages from 25 to 28 April UNI.
Governments' account
Madhya Pradesh told the Supreme Court it had provided relief "well before" notices went out to oustees Supreme Court order. Gujarat said the dam was the state's lifeline and work must continue; Modi said three of the four states backed the height Tribune. The Centre said it was committed to rehabilitation and that dam work and resettlement could proceed together UNI. Delhi Police said Patkar was taken to hospital, not arrested PTI.
How many families? The disputed figures
- Claim · NBA About 35,000 families would lose homes or livelihoods at 121.92 m UNI.
- Claim · Centre On 17 April the Centre told the court over 13,000 families were yet to be settled in Madhya Pradesh. Claim · Madhya Pradesh The state said it had rehabilitated all oustees UNI.
- Government's position On 15 May Soz told the Lok Sabha there were 18,093 project-affected families across the three states, and that there were "grey areas" in Madhya Pradesh UNI.
- Documented The Shunglu group, with a 100-member NSSO team, surveyed 26,000 families in 177 villages. It reported that state records showed 3,800 of 4,200 families had taken cash compensation Down To Earth.
After 2006: completion and the fight over resettlement
The fast won no stay. On 10 July 2006 the court let Gujarat level the spillway at 119 m. The Prime Minister had found the Shunglu report "fairly accurate" Supreme Court order.
Rs 60 lakh per family for two hectares: that was the Supreme Court's February 2017 order for Madhya Pradesh oustees, who were to vacate within a month. The NBA told the court about 45,000 affected people were still not rehabilitated. In August 2017 the court sent further pleas to the Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court PTI via Business Standard. Claim · V K Saxena V K Saxena of the National Council for Civil Liberties, a long-time backer of the dam, said the NBA was "using oustees to approach courts".
Modi, by then Prime Minister, dedicated the dam to the nation at Kevadia on 17 September 2017, his 67th birthday. It had been raised to 138.68 m, with usable storage of 4.73 million acre feet, the Prime Minister's Office said PMO Madhyamam.
On 9 September 2019 the water stood at 136.04 m. Down To Earth found villages under water in Alirajpur, Dhar and Barwani, some families living in tin sheds. Patkar had fasted from 25 August to 2 September; Madhya Pradesh minister Surendra Singh Baghel then promised fresh surveys with NBA members present Down To Earth.
In June 2024 Patkar fasted again in Dhar district, asking that the reservoir be held at 122 m until resettlement was complete Free Press Journal. That September she and villagers stood in the river at Kasrawad, Barwani, for more than 22 hours. Claim · NBA She said 170 villages flooded in the 2023 monsoon were still not rehabilitated The Mooknayak.
A count never agreed
No 2025 or 2026 reporting on the rehabilitation count or a final court ruling on it was found for this page; the latest verified events are the 2024 protests in Dhar and Barwani. How many families were owed land, and how many got it, has never been settled in one agreed figure.
Sources
- UNI via Oneindia: Govt fails to break Medha's fast, 3 Apr 2006
- PTI via Rediff: Medha Patkar's strike enters 8th day, 5 Apr 2006
- PTI via Rediff: Medha Patkar's condition stable: doctors, 6 Apr 2006
- Amnesty International: India: Excessive use of force against peaceful Narmada demonstrators, Apr 2006
- UNI via Oneindia: Medha continues hunger strike for 11th day, 8 Apr 2006
- The Himalayan Times: Saviour Khan takes up Narmada cause, 15 Apr 2006
- Tribune: Narmada talks hit roadblock; Modi to go on fast, 16 Apr 2006
- Tribune: Cong aligns with BJP on Narmada; NBA office ransacked; Protests against Aamir, 16 Apr 2006
- Tribune (PTI, UNI): Modi begins fast; Medha Patkar's effigy burnt, 17 Apr 2006
- Outlook: 'Largely Paperwork', text of the Group of Ministers' note, 17 Apr 2006
- Supreme Court of India: NBA v Union of India, order of 17 April 2006 (IELRC copy)
- Tribune: SC refuses to halt work; Medha Patkar ends fast, 18 Apr 2006
- UNI via Oneindia: Left hails apex court's warning on adequate rehabilitation, 17 Apr 2006
- UNI via Oneindia: No relief, rehabilitation for affected people in MP: NBA, 29 Apr 2006
- UNI via Oneindia: Clear picture on rehabilitation by June end, says Soz, 15 May 2006
- UNI via Oneindia: Aamir's 'Fanaa' not to be screened in Gujarat, 23 May 2006
- IANS via Tribune: Fanaa destroyed in Gujarat politics, 25 May 2006
- UNI via Oneindia: BJP neither for ban nor boycott of Fanaa, 26 May 2006
- UNI via Oneindia: Fanaa not to be screened in Gujarat multiplexes despite SC remark, 5 Jun 2006
- Supreme Court of India: NBA v Union of India, order of 10 July 2006 (IELRC copy)
- UNI via Oneindia: Quit on moral ground, Chouhan tells Soz, 11 Jul 2006
- Down To Earth: Dubious report, 15 Aug 2006
- Down To Earth: Holding fast, 30 Apr 2006
- PTI via Business Standard: SC rejects plea for relief to oustees of Narmada dam project, 9 Aug 2017
- Prime Minister's Office: PM to dedicate Sardar Sarovar Dam to the nation, 16 Sep 2017
- Madhyamam: On his 67th birthday, Modi dedicates Narmada dam to the nation, 17 Sep 2017
- Down To Earth: Narmada dam oustees not satisfied with MP govt assurances, 10 Sep 2019
- Free Press Journal: Indefinite hunger strike in Barwani enters third day, 17 Jun 2024
- The Mooknayak: Medha Patkar's 22-hour Jal Satyagraha in Barwani, 15 Sep 2024