A vociferous protest against big dams reaches its crucial stage when union environment minister Jairam Ramesh was greeted with protest as he was arriving in Guwahti for a public hearing on the NHPC owned big dam in Arunachal Pradesh.
As the Union minister started the public hearing at Machkhowa, ITA, hundreds of local organizations and political parties approached him to register stiff protest again the on going construction of the big dam in Gerukamukh by NHPC in the name of the lower Subansiri hydel project. Citing the expert panel report, these parties and organisations have told the minister that the big dam might spell an ecological disaster for the people in down stream areas.
PermalinkSubmitted by Hayang on Wed, 29/09/2010 - 05:16
--Lame Excuse by NHPC CMD S.K. Garg--
Despite strident protests in Assam with environmental concerns over construction of mega dams, National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) Chairman-cum-Managing Director S.K. Garg says that the project builders plan to commission three units in March 2012 and the remaining five units by December 2012. This is because Rs 4000 crore of the Rs 9000 crore project has been utilized. That means 40% of the expenses have been made. But is this a reason enough to sacrifice environment and the population of downstream areas which cannot be compensated even if the Indian central government bring all the riches in the world. When land is lost, existence is lost. When existence is lost, the very right to our natural habitat is lost.
In the devastating floods caused by the Tehri dam in Uttarakhand, the central government has promised a package of Rs 500 crore to the state government. That means every year there will be floods, the Indian government will dole out Rs 500 crore. So, within 8 years, Rs 4000 crore will have to be shelved out. If this is the economics involved, Rs 4000 crore is nothing for a rich country like India where many politicians and ministers have pocketed hundreds and thousands of crores. So, the justification of Rs 4000 crore by S.K. Garg sounds to be a lame excuse to keep the industrial corporations who fund the elections happy and satisfied.
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Police rescued Faizur Islam in Dhubri 25 days after the executive engineer of the agriculture department was kidnapped by miscreants in Bongaigaon. It is expected to be major breakthrough to the ongoing probe into the death of Gadapani Pathok. The engineer was admitted to a local hospital in Bongaigaon. Islam's health had deteriorated during his days in captivity.
Islam was rescued from Salkosa, in the trijunction of Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon and Dhubri districts on Sunday night. Islam and his colleague Gadapani Pathak were kidnapped on May 2 by four unidentified armed men at Kakragaon while they were returning to Guwahati from Dhubri in a car. Both Pathak and Islam were engineers in...
Purvotar Hindi Academy, Shillong organized a three day “Rastriya Hindi Vikash Samelan” at Rajasthan Vishram Bhawan, Shillong on May 25 to 27, 2012, to popularize Hindi language in the Northeastern region. Experts in their own fields poets, writers, columnists, artists, singers from different parts of India took part in the samelan , (workshop) a participant had come from as far as Russia to participate in the samelan.
On the closing day of the samelan Meghalaya Deputy Chief Minister BM Lanong lauded the efforts of the Academy for popularizing Hundi Language particularly in Meghalaya and other State of northeast in general. Mr. Lanong while giving his speech in Hindi said, it...
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Five persons of a family have been found ill after they ate chapattis in Jorhat district on Sunday. The five member family of Ward No 2 of Jorhat town complained of stomach ache, nausea and vomiting after they had their dinner last night and were admitted to the Jorhat Medical College Hospital.
The family members complained that the chapatti tasted bitter and could have been contaminated. The members have been identified as Piyolal Banik, Chandana Banik, Sanjoy Banik, Gitu Banik and Babu Banik. The Jorhat Food Inspector has seized the remaining flour of which the family bought from a particular shop in the area and the shopkeeper was picked up for interrogation.
Yet another earthquake jolted Assam and its neighbouring states on Sunday triggering panic among the people. The mild tremor shook the state at 8-32 in the evening in Guwahati where people tried to come out of their houses fearing huge damage. But the tremor lasted only for a few seconds.
Three persons died and seven others injured in a bus accident in Goalpara district on Sunday. The accident took place when the high speeding bus, which was on its way from Goalpara town to Guwahati, jumped off the road and fell in a ditch near Chandamari under the Aagiya police station. One of the dead has been identified as Fulsan Ali. Among the injured, seven have been shifted to the Guwahati Medical College and the others have been admitted to nearby hospitals.
Police have arrested Borkhola MLA Rumi Nath and his facebook friend turned second husband Jackey Zakir on Sunday a few days after her first husband filed an FIR at a local police station. Nath, eloped with Zakir leaving her two-year-old daughter and husband in the lurch. Rumee, who represents the Barkhola assembly segment, converted to Islam and married her long-time Facebook friend Zakir about a month ago in Islamic way. On Friday, she circulated a video to the media disclosing that state minister Siddeque Ahmed “facilitated” the marriage.
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The marathon, unique for this region is named as Kaziranga Green Marathon, where participants and volunteers will run for a cause to promote nature conservation and inculcate love for wildlife and nature amongst the students and...
The National Human Rights Commission will dispatch a delegation to hold a three-day camp sitting in Assam and Meghalaya from May 28 to reach out to far-flung areas. Led by its chairman Justice (Retd) K G Balakrishnan, the camp will aims at disposing pending cases by hearing senior government officers, sensitise them about importance of human rights issues and compliance of NHRC recommendations, meet local NGOs and brief media for wider dissemination of information on human rights issues.
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Police claimed to have seized a huge quantity of explosives from two persons in Cachar district on Saturday.These were intercepted during a routine patrolling where the two youths were arrested from Joypur area under Lakhipur police station. These explosives include 600 gelatin sticks, 340 electronic detonators, 2,300 non-electronic detonator and 192 metre long fuse wire. The duo revealed that they were taking the explosives to Tamenglong for blasting rock-hill but the police suspect that the consignment was actually meant for supplying it to Naga militants in Manipur.
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