The World Commission on Dams (WCD) will be holding its first public hearings in Sri Lanka, possibly in Colombo, over three days, between December 9 and 13 this year. The hearings, scheduled to be held in Bhopal from September 21 to 23, were "postponed" following an advisory from the Planning Commission. A more crucial factor that influenced what has now been acknowledged by the Commission in a media release as the "cancellation" of those hearings was the strong opposition to the visit of the WCD by the Gujarat Government, including a threat from the Chief Minister that the WCD members would be "arrested" if they entered the State.