CPCT Test 4
15 min30 WPM required463 words
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The Narmada river is the most sacred and economically important river of Madhya Pradesh, flowing westward from its origin at Amarkantak in the Anuppur district through the heart of the state for approximately 1,077 kilometres before entering Gujarat and finally emptying into the Arabian Sea at Bharuch. The river basin, encompassing approximately 98,796 square kilometres in Madhya Pradesh alone, supports a population of tens of millions of people in more than a dozen districts, providing water for drinking, irrigation, and industrial use. The Narmada Valley Development Authority, established in 1985, was constituted to plan and execute the systematic development of the water resources of the Narmada basin through a series of major, medium, and minor dams and their associated irrigation and power generation infrastructure. The apex project of this development programme is the Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat, the terminal dam on the Narmada, constructed under the Narmada Waters Disputes Tribunal award of 1979 that allocated the waters of the Narmada among the riparian states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra. Major dams and reservoirs constructed in Madhya Pradesh include the Indira Sagar Dam at Punasa on the main stem of the Narmada, which is the largest reservoir in India by storage capacity; the Omkareshwar Dam downstream of Indira Sagar; the Maheshwar Dam, a run-of-river hydropower project; and the Bargi Dam at Jabalpur, the first major dam to be completed on the Narmada in Madhya Pradesh. These projects together provide irrigation water to millions of hectares of agricultural land in the Narmada command area in Madhya Pradesh and downstream states, generate thousands of megawatts of hydroelectric power, and provide regulated flows for downstream water users during lean season. The construction of these dams, however, has involved the submergence of large areas of valley land, including fertile agricultural land, villages, towns, forests, and archaeologically important sites, requiring the displacement and resettlement of hundreds of thousands of people â predominantly tribal communities and marginal farmers who have lived in the river valley for generations. The rehabilitation and resettlement of project-affected families has been a deeply contested issue, with the Narmada Bachao Andolan, led by social activist Medha Patkar, conducting a sustained protest movement against the projects and demanding full and fair rehabilitation for displaced persons before further construction. The Supreme Court of India, through a series of judgments over many years, set conditions for the height-wise completion of the Sardar Sarovar Dam and ordered that resettlement be completed in advance of submergence. The Narmada Control Authority, constituted under the tribunal award, monitors compliance with resettlement provisions and coordinates interstate water management. Beyond the large dam projects, the Narmada basin supports a network of medium and minor irrigation schemes and lift irrigation installations that bring water to upland areas beyond the reach of gravity canals.