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.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be on a day long tour to Assam on April 7.
Dr Singh confirmed it before Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Thursday who called on him on Delhi.
Dr Singh will inaugurate the Platinum Jubilee celebrations of Assam Legislative Assembly.
The Chief Minister also called on Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and urged him not to revise the oil royalti policy fearing it would have adverse impact on the oil reach state.
Bangladesh is all set to honour music maestro Dr Bhupen Hazarika and former Chief Minister late Sarat Chandra Singha at a function in Dhaka on March 27.
The duo are among the three other figures to honoured to acknowledge their role in the independence struggle during the War of Liberation in 1971.
They would be awarded at a ceremonial reception at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre on March 27. Bangladesh President Zillur Rahman and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will hand over the medals, crests and citations among the distinguished awardees.
The Coir Board-sponsored North East Expo-2012 in Guwahati is underway to boost the domestic coir market.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi inaugurated the expo at a function on Wednesday and it will conclude on March 30. This is the first time that the Coir Board is organising such an elaborate expo.
Over 1,000 agitators courted arrest on Wednesday at Boko near Rangiya when they blocked the National Highway 37 to protest against illegal encroachment of land in Assam by Meghalaya.
The agitators blocked the highway for over two hours demanding action against encroachers from Meghalaya who have allegedly built a school, a martrys' tomb and an outpost at Nampi locality in the territory belonging to Assam.
Sub Divisional Commissioner of Boko NC Basumatari rushed to the spot with a large contingent of police. The agitators were arrested from the spot and normal traffic resumed on the national highway.
A women was crushed to death by a train on Wednesday in Guwahati.
The tragic incident took at Santipur in the wee hours when she was stuck between two trains coming from different directions. She was identified as Hanupa Begum, the mother of 5 children. The family of seven has been living by the side of the railway tracks slum areas for 10 years and the husband is a rickshaw puller.
Two more special CBI court would started functioning in Assam. The government disclosed it in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office V Narayanasamy said in a written reply that total of 54 special CBI courts out of the sanctioned 71 have started functioning in the country.
While four courts are yet to get functional in Odisha, two in Assam, three in Delhi and five in Andhra Pradesh among others, the concurrence of the state government has "not" been received for one special court in Shimla in Himachal Pradesh.
Assam won two gold medals in Men and Women shot put event. in 26th Northeast Games in Mizoram. Tunlai Nurzary from the state won gold medal in women's shot put event by covering a distance of 10.29 metres. In men's shot put event, Dulu Gogoi bagged the gold medal with a throw covering 11.64 metres.
In women's football event, Tripura defeated Assam 1-0 while Mizoram thrashed Meghalaya 6-1. In men's fotball, Tripura beat Arunachal Pradesh 5-1.
In semifinal of 48-kg category of women's boxing, S Nengneihat Kom of Manipur defeated Silpa Limbu of Assam. In second semifinal, Rebecca of Mizoram defeated Rosni Busha of Meghalaya.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Wednesday claimed that the Comprehensive Cleft Care Centre at the Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Civil Hospital here in Guwahati, is the best in the world.
Addressing a function, he said that the manner in which the team has been carrying out the work on a missionary zeal, the day is not far off when Assam will become a completely cleft-free state.
The founder of Operation Smile International, Dr William P Magee, said the centre in Assam was the best among 13 such centres that Operation Smile currently runs in 13 countries across the globe.
Electronic Media Forum Assam (EMFA) has expressed serious concern at the increasing rate of assaults on media persons in the recent past and urged the authority to take stern action against them, who are involved with the incidents. The television journalist forum also appeals to the civil society group and general populace to support the media persons to perform their duties without interferences.
Mentionable is that the coal mafia in Sibsagar attacked Bipin Hazarika of DY365, an influential satellite news channel of Assam, on March 20 for his initiative to report about the illegal open cast coal mining in his locality. Hazarika received serious injuries when a group of thugs,...
The Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam recorded a rise in the number of the endangered one-horn rhinos during the past one year.
According to sources, the count of the prized animal inside the park, which has the highest density of the animal within its 36 sq km area, rose to 93 against 87 recorded in the earlier census in March 2011.
Among the 93 rhinos were 25 calves, 25 adult males and 43 females. Nine rhinos were translocated to the Manas Wildlife Sanctuary from Pabitora since January.
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