The Dam In The Brain

Dam operators are never punished in India, and so they don’t follow the rules

HIMANSHU THAKKAR
Water resources analyst

The Hirakud project is a work which will not cause more misery to the people but it will bring about an end to their miseries.

Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, April 12, 1948, while laying the foundation stone for the Hirakud Project

Sage Valmiki, author of the immortal epic, Ramayana, in his own unique way, declares that people who always sing praises in sweet and soft language are easily found, but those that give, or listen to, wholesome but unpleasant advice are rare . . . [the Hirakud project] will not bring about the anticipated miraculous transformation of the province but . . . would bring about bankruptcy of the province of Orissa.
Chief Engineer (Mysore) MG Rangaiya, August 1947

LOOK AT the contours of the disastrous floods in Orissa’s Mahanadi river basin, said to be the worst the area has seen in almost 25 years. Twenty lakh people from nearly 3,000 villages in 17 districts have been affected. Fifteen lakh people are marooned, 1.8 lakh have been evacuated and hundreds are feared killed. By 3pm on September 22, embankments had been breached at 78 places, submerging over 15 lakh hectares of cropped land and destroying not only all standing crop but the possibility of the next harvest as well.