Narmada above danger mark in Dhar, Barwani districts of MP

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Around 1,000 people have been evacuated from catchment areas of Sardar Sarovar Dam (SSD) in Madhya Pradesh's Barwani and Dhar districts as the Narmada river is flowing above the danger mark following heavy rains.

About 700 persons were evacuated in Dhar district.

Some 300 people were shifted to safer places from the submergence areas including Rajghat and Chotta Badda in Barwani, district collector Amit Tomar told PTI on August 9. "Besides, we have evacuated 28 shops, two ashrams, a temple and 25 houses from the area," he added.

The opening of sluice gates of SSD in Gujarat has brought down the backwater level in Barwani, he said.

"But we are on alert and people living in low-lying areas are being urged to move to safer places," Tomar said.

An officials of the Narmada Valley Development Authority of Madhya Pradesh said that at 2 pm on August 9, the river was flowing 7 meters above its danger mark of 123.28 meters at Rajghat village.

In Dhar district, people living in low-lying areas of Nisarpur town and Chikhalda village which fall in the dam's catchment areas were seen moving out with their belongings.

Around 700 people were shifted to safer places from Nisarpur and Chikhalda in the last 24 hours, an official said.

Meanwhile, Medha Patkar-led Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) on August 9 called off its satyagraha (protest) at Rajghat.

The protest aimed to mount pressure on the Gujarat government to open Sardar Sarovar Dam's gates so that people living in submergence areas in Madhya Pradesh were not affected by floods, the NBA said in a statement.

"We have won as the Gujarat government has opened the gates," it said.

The sluice gates of the dam should remain open till all those who were displaced for the SSD project are fully rehabilitated, the organization demanded.