GUWAHATI, July 12 – Members of Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba-Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) today staged demonstrations at the district and subdivisional headquarters all over the State in support of their demand for abandoning the existing and proposed mega dam hydel projects of the NE region and neighbouring Bhutan.
They also registered their protest against the bid to bring back the Lower Subansiri Hydroelectric Power Project (LSHEP) turbines to the State. They demanded that the barges carrying the turbines should instead be sent back.
The AJYCP members also sent memorandums to the Prime Minister of the country, demanding immediate steps to scrap all the mega dam projects and sending back the turbine-laden barges from Assam.
In the city, the members of the Guwahati district committee of the AJYCP staged a demonstration near the Panbazar ferry station. Later they sent a memorandum to the Prime Minister through the Deputy Commissioner of Kamrup (Metro) district, said a press release.
Meanwhile, Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti general secretary Akhil Gogoi, in an open letter to Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, questioned the legitimacy of his claim that the mega dam projects would solve the State’s problem of floods.
He also described the bid of the Government of India to set up 168 hydel projects in Arunachal Pradesh as a colonial attempt to exploit the water resources of the region. The State Government should not extend support to the Central Government in this respect, said the KMSS general secretary.
The KMSS general secretary also alleged that the Central Government has been ignoring the rights of Assam over the inter-State rivers flowing through its territory. The environment impact assessment (EIA) studies conducted for setting up the hydel projects in the NE region have not covered the issue of impact of these projects in downstream Assam, he alleged.
The cumulative impact of these projects, together with the Bhutanese ones with the joint capacity of generating 15,000 MW of power, should be properly studied before going for setting up such projects, said the KMSS general secretary.
