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.
Security forces seized a huge quantity of ganja, weighing more than 80 kgs from the Guwahati Railway station on Saturday.
Patrolling railway police personnel recovered ten packets of the contraband, worth Rs 3 lakh, from a compartment of the Alipurduar-Mariani Passenger train.
In another incident, police recovered 16 packets of ganja, worth about Rs six lakhs, from the guards room of the railway station and took into custody the Guardsman Chandiram Bodo.
BJP and All India United Democratic Front have slammed the Union Budget 2012-13 a day after it was presented by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee in Parliament on Friday.
Talking to reporters, BJP MP Ramen Deka said that the Centre should declare a separate time zone for the northeast for increasing the pace of development and work efficiency in the region. Party MP Romen Deka raised the issue of a separate time zone for the northeast under rule 377 on March 14. Deka told a press conference here on Saturday that there was nothing significant for the northeast in the budget and the increase in taxes would cause problems to the common people.
AIUDF president caterogically termed the Union Budget as anti-poor. Talking to reporters on Saturday, he said that the new taxes were going to hurt the common people. He said that the budget has nothing for the common people, and the poor are going to be hit hard. According to him, at a time when the Brahmaputra was creating havoc in the form of floods and erosion, there was a high expectation in Assam Assam that the finance minister would come out with special measures for the state.
He further said that even President Pratibha Patil's address had no mention of flood and erosion problem.
The much-hyped NRC update process is expected to begin from July. The exercise is set to take place in two in three phase from Sadiya.
This was disclosed during a meeting of the ministerial panel and some organizations including AASU. Panel head Prithvi Majhi who chaired the meeting admitted the major demands raised by these orgasnizations. The NRC update forms would have birth place. The update is set to take place from Sadiya in three phases.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has stressed poverty alleviation with gainful self-employment and skilled wage employment opportunities.
Addressing the General Body meeting of the Assam State Rural Livelihoods Mission Society on Saturday, Gogoi said that importance would be on providing them access to credit, marketing and other livelihood services to facilitate their upward mobility. He said that ASRLMS would implement the NRLM, the redesigned and restructured programme of Swarnajayanti Gram Swaroajgar Yojana (SGSY) to bail out the rural BPL families.
Union Rural Development Ministry's Joint Secretary T Vijay Kumar called for focused attention on building grassroots capacity to...
The Kaziranga National park got more forest camps. The forest camp inside the abode of one horn rhino has gone up to 152.
The camps would be manned by 6 to 7 guards each of whom will be armed with sophisticated weapons.
Moreover, 170 armed security guards have been deployed inside the national park, a world heritage site, along with personnel from Assam Forest Protection Force.
Local residents in Jakhalabandha town held 75 suspected Bangladeshi immigrants on Saturday after they arrived in the railway station from Dhubri.
The suspected Bangladeshi nationals were coming from Dhubri by the Dhubri-Silghat passenger express which reached Jakhalabandha station in the morning.
When asked, they failed to submit any valid document and later admitted that they were on their way to Kuthori near the Kaziranga National Park.
Sixty members of the group, including a female have been detained at the Jakhalabandha police station. Fifteen others have been released.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Saturday seemed not happy with the Union budget tabled in Parliament on Friday.
Talking to reporters in Guwahati on Saturday, Gogo said that there is no such major announcement for the state. But he was in a fix when the media people repeatedly asked him how the UPA government has virtually donwplayed the interest of Assam. The rail budget is not an exception.
Day long screening of award-winning Assamese Films, organized by Assam association Delhi in association with enajori.com and Pooberun. All are invited.
Date: Sunday, the 18th March 2012 from 11.00hrs to 19.00hrs
Venue: Srimanta Sankardeva Bhawan, New Delhi
List of Feature Films :
1. Firingoti (The Spark) : Directed by Jahnu Baruah.
2. Laaz (Shame) : Directed by Manju Borah
3. Tora (Tora's Love) : Directed by Jahnu Baruah.
List of Short Films and Documentaries
4. Divided Soul : Directed by Dip Bhuyan
5. Their Story : Directed by Reema Borah
6. Seventy-Five Years of Assamese Cinema : Directed by Prabin Hazarika.
For details please call: 26537786,...
Police arrested notorious drug kingpin Elahi Sheikh from his residence in the Chandmari area of Guwahati on Friday.
Acting on a tip-off, police raided Sheikh's house and caught him along with a huge consignment of drugs. Police claimed to have found brown sugar weighing over 1 kg in his possession. Two drug peddlers - Bhutu Ali and Nazir Ali - were also arrested along with him.
Sheikh, who is considered the kingpin of the racket in the entire upper Assam region, parts of neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, has been escaping police.
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