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 recovered a huge cache of arms and explosives in Cachar district on Saturday.
These were seized from a house during a joint search operation at Harinadik village under Badarpur circle in Karimganj. During the search operation, the team recovered a country-made carbine weapon and two packets of suspected Improvised Explosive Device connected with wires from the house of Abdul Rouf and Mujibur Rahman. Later, recovered arms were handed over to the police for necessary action.
A stunned Cachar district administration discussed the situation prevailing in the Bhuvan Valley Tea Garden after reports of starvation deaths.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has asked additional Chief Secretary P K Choudhury to to conduct an inquiry into the alleged starvation deaths. Joint Director from health department Dr Bijoylakshmi Das who visited the affected tea garden said in the meeting that mostly aged people have died and many residents of the garden were suffering from malnutrition.
The garden administration refused to divulge the name of the owners of the estate and the Additional Chief Secretary issued directives that the names of the owners should be immediately provided...
The Garo National Liberation Army has released a senior State Bank of India official they kidnapped on February in East Garo Hills on Saturday.
According to information, the SBI assistant general manager VK Gupta was freed in Krishnai in Goalpara district 17 days after he was was kidnapped by four unidentified men from the Chotamatia area.
VK Gupta was kidnapped on February 20 while he was on his way to Assam after auditing at the bank's Mendipathar branch.
The Board of Secondary Education, Assam on Saturday revised the schedule for the on gong HSLC examination hours after the question paper anomalies in Nalbari district.
In a statement, the Board has informed that the general science examination would be held on March 26 instead of March 10.
Notably, a section of examinees in Samota HS School on Saturday received question papers of general science instead of social science. The SEBA has further ordered a probe into it and suspended the officer in charge of the examination Centre.
Suspected KPLT militants kidnapped Assam Chief Conservator of Forest Abhijit Rabha with a range officer on Saturday in Karbi Anglong district. The militants have demanded a ransom of Rs 1 crore for their safe release.
According to information, Rabha was leading a delegation of 60 members to the Singhasan Hills to conduct a forest department survey on February 27. Some of them returned on February 29.
The incident took place when the remaining 30 members were returning on Saturday after they were stopped by six armed KPLT militants at Borlag.
The two officers were abducted while the rest to leave, the SP added. The militants later sent a message demanding a ransom of Rs one crore for...
Over ten local organizations in Dibrugarh have threatened to stop the gas cracker works if the CISF personnel responsible for Friday firing escapes action within 36 hours.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has already asked additional deputy commissioner PK Rajkhowa to probe the incident of firing where a worker died and three others have been injured when CISF personnel opened fire to disperse a group of striking workers at the project gate. A compensation of Rs 2 lakh would also be paid to the next of kin of the person killed and job provided to one member of the victim’s family in the project. Industry Minister Pradyut Bordoloi and Labour Minister Prithbi Majhi have rushed to the...
Security forces in Dibrugarh district seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition were on Saturday.
Acting on a tip-off, troops of 18 Jat Regiment conducted a search operation at Kochunio village and recovered the arms from an abandoned house. The arms recovered include two pistols, three grenades, one revolver, explosives and several rounds of ammunition.
The situation in Lepetkota is still on the boil a day after a worker died in firing.
Thousands of workers are striking work on Saturday demanding action against the CISF personnel responsible for the shoot out where a worker died and three others sustained injury. The authorities at the BCPL project site have been trying to reach the agitating workers who have been refusing to resume work.
The severed head found in Kamakhya has been identified as Mujibur Rahman who was remaining traceless for the last couple of days. He was missing on his way to his wife in Sipajhar. The remaining part of his body has yet to be recovered.
Two persons sustained bullet injury at a sensational incident of robbery in Jorhat on Saturday. The incident took place at around 1PM at the Chinamora Level Crossing near the town when two armed youths opened fire at a Bolero vehicle on its way to a tea garden with an amount of Rs 11 lakh.
After halting the vehicle the miscreants looted the entire amount brought for disbursing the labourer payments at the Kharikotiya Tea Estate. Then they fled from the spot. Accounts officer of the tea garden and the driver were rushed to the Jorhat Medical College Hospital.
Comments
Pages
Add new comment