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.
19 Aug 2014 - 5:43pm | AT News
Amid an escalating tension along the Assam-Nagaland border in Golaghat district the All Tai Ahom Students Union activists in Amguri burnt the effigy of Union home minister Rajnath Singh for not...
3 Jul 2012 - 7:37pm | editor
Pranab Mukherjee will be on two days visit to Guwahati on July 6 to campaign for the presidential polls slated for July 19. According to information, the former union minister is scheduled to arrive...
24 Nov 2013 - 8:48am | AT News
Noted tukari maestro Umakanta Boiragi and Borgeet maestro Jogen Dutt borbayan bring pride and glory for the state. Both the artists have been selected for the prestigious Sangeet...
4 Jul 2016 - 12:29pm | AT News
Hundreds of AJYCP activists in Sivasagar district launched day long strike in protest against the move to auction 12 oil fields. The agitating activists thronged the oil fields where they warned the...
At least ten persons have been injured when a local train collided with a railway engine in Dibrugarh district on Wednesday. The incident took place at M E S Tiniali area near Chabua town of the district at around 7 in the evening. The Dibrugarh-Ledo passenger train was coming towards Dibrugarh when it collided head on with a pilot engine going to the opposite direction. All the injured have been shifted to local hospitals and rescue operations are still going on at the site.
Christmas festivity grips Assam from Monday with churches wearing a fresh look across the state. Christian people across the state thronged the churches from Monday midnight with carols and prayers.From early in the morning on Tuesday people are line up in front of the churches for prayers. People from all walks of life are gathered in the churches for the special Christmas Vigil services being held across the state to celebrate birth of Jesus Christ. In the heart of Guwahati, Nagaon, Jorhat, Tezpur, the young and the old and the rich and the poor all offered special prayers on the eve of Christmas.
Amid the hail of protest against rape in Delhi and molestation in Manipur, a 22-year-old girl in Sivasagar alleged inaction by the police in a case of molestation filed by her against six persons. The girl, who is pursuing a university law student, was allegedly molested by the six outside her home in daylight at Joysagar on August 8. According to her, the six had disrobed her and beat her with sticks when she resisted them.The girl later filed a complaint at Joysagar police station and one of the accused was arrested a few days later and sent to jail but the other five are still free. Meanwhile, chargesheet had been filed on the case and the five accused are on the run.
In yet another landmark judgment, a lower court in Nalbari has jailed a former Assam Assembly Speaker along with two others in a nefarious teacher recruitment scam that rocked the district in 1998. Former Assam speaker Pulakesh Baruah was sentenced to two terms of rigorous imprisonment of two years each by a local court on Monday in a case of illegal appointment of teachers in Nalbari district 16 years ago.The order was passed by Chief Judicial Magistrate of Nalbari, Dibyajyoti Mahanta who also fined Baruah Rs 20,000 in the case. However, it has not said by the court whether the two terms of imprisonment would run concurrently or separately.The two terms of imprisonment were awarded under...
The National Union of Journalists (India) and Journalists Association of Assam trongly condemned the police brutality on mediapersons covering the public protest against rape incident in national capital Delhi and also the death of a photographer in police firing who was covering a protest in Imphal on Sunday.In a joint statement, issued here today NUJ(I) secretary general Ras Bihari and Journalists Association of Assam (JAA) general secretary Bhupen Goswami termed the police action in Delhi as preplanned and demanded strict action against the policemen and officers responsible for the action. “A high level delegation of the NUJ(I) leaders will shortly meet the Union Home Minister Sushil...
Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA) has expressed shock at the killing of a local scribe in Imphal on Sunday (December 23, 2012) in the police firing. The Assam based journalist organization has urged the O. Ibobi Singh led Manipur government to investigate the incident that led to killing of Th Dwijamani (Nanao) Singh and compensate his family.Mentionable is that Nanao Singh, 30, who used to work as a stringer camera person for Prasar Bharati, was killed on the second day of indefinite strikes called by the protesters asking actions against an NSCN-IM leader (Livingstone Anal), who allegedly molested a Meitei film artiste on December 18 last.“Nanao Singh was killed this afternoon when the...
Can a woman be raped, gang-raped, tortured and even murdered, and the men who did it get away scot-free? Why is the Indian army being allowed to get away with rapes and murders of women in India? Why is its morale sustained by repeated sexual violence against women and wanton killing of local population? Why are army and various security forces above the law? Why is there extensive denial of sexual assault in the power corridors? Why do women complainants and accused have to live in the fear of sexual assault by police or other security forces where they are present? Why do these forces entrusted with the security of the nation become threats to the security of innocent women and children?...
Holding placards scores of students rallied through Duliajan Township on Friday to spread the message related to protection of girl child and mother-child health etc. The rally was a part of health awareness campaign organized by Directorate of Field Publicity, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Dibrugarh with a view to make people aware about health schemes run by government.The campaign organized at Duliajan BM Junior college campus in co-ordination with Prasiddha (NGO) and Surjudaya (NGO) and the main awareness meeting was held in continuation with college’s second foundation day. Presided over by Principal Bulimoni Neog, the number of resource persons educated the students...
A traditional food festival is underway at organized at Silpagram, Guwahati. The event is being organised by North East Zone Cultural Center.
Photo: UB PHOTOS.
ASEAN—India Car Rally has reached Guwahati on Sunday receiving cheers from thousands of people since it entered the state. The 31 vehicles participating in the rally entered Assam to be received at the border near Nambor Reserve Forest by Golaghat Deputy Commissioner Sanjiv Gohain Boruah.
Then they headed for Numaligarh Refinery Limited where they were given a rousing welcome. The participants were also welcomed at the Kaziranga National Park by a cavalcade of elephants.
The ASEAN—India Car Rally 2012, jointly organised by the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), began on November 26 at Yogyakarta in Indonesia...
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