Govt lacks 'political will' to solve water problem: Keshubhai

Former Chief Minister and Gujarat Parivartan Party MLA Keshubhai Patel today alleged that the Gujarat government was lacking 'political will' to bring Narmada river water to the 'thirsty' Saurashtra region and was making contradictory claims on the issue.
"The way government and Chief Minister were making contradictory claims shows lack of political will of this government to bring Narmada water to the thirsty Saurashtra region," Patel alleged while speaking on the Motion of Thanks to the Governor's address.
He referred to Modi's statement made at a public rally in Botad last May when he promised to fill 77 dams in Saurashtra region at a cost of Rs 58,000 crore.

"And after four months he changed it and claimed that his government will fill 115 dams at a cost of Rs 10,000 crore," Keshubhai said adding that, "these two different claims have created serious doubts over government's intentions."
Referring to Governor's address, in which it was assured that Government aimed to complete most of the pending Narmada canal work by June-2013, he said, "I am wondering how the government, which had only finished 20,000 kms of the canal work in the past 10-12 years, can finish 48,000 kms of the canal work in next 3-4 months," he said.
"Even Narmada Nigam (Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited) in its publication says that the remaining canal work is expected to be completed in coming 2-3 years," he said.

Making compassionate plea to give priority to the water issue for Saurashtra, he said that the region is facing severe water situation which is likely to become worse in the summer.