Source: www.circleofblue.org
INDIA, September 2, 2010: India’s central government canceled a dam project on a Ganges River tributary last week, after the leading partner in the ruling coalition intervened because of environmental and religious concerns. This is the third project on the river scrapped because of such pressure.
A group of ministers led by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee green-lighted the 600 Megawatts Loharinag Pala hydroelectric project since the government had already spent US$139 million on the dam and committed US$429 million in supply contracts. But leaders of the Congress party, including environment minister Jairam Ramesh, abandoned the agreement because of local and national pressure.
Work on the dam stopped in March 2009 after a well-known India scientist, A.D. Agarwal, nearly died during a hunger strike in protest. “The water … is not ordinary water to a Hindu. It is a matter of the life and death of Hindu faith,” said Agarwal, former dean of the Indian Institute of Technology, to the Guardian before he started his fast.