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.
22 Oct 2016 - 9:31pm | AT Kokrajhar Bureau
Allegation has been lodged with Superintendent of Kokrajhar RNB Civil Hospital against serving nurses along the hospital for mishandled of a pregnant woman during delivery hour inside OT room which...
23 Apr 2014 - 5:31pm | AT News
The pre poll heat and dust seems to have touched new low. That too a day after electioneering came to an end.Nagaon BJP candidate Rajen Gohain on Wednesday moved the Election Commission against...
7 Apr 2017 - 9:11pm | Nava Thakuria
The entire batch of 1982-83 high school leaving certificate examination participants from Makhibaha High School (now an HS standard) under Nalbari district of central Assam will assemble along with...
2 Dec 2014 - 9:50pm | Bidyut Sarkar
There is trace of Ganesh Dutta 24 hours after the trader went missing from Dudhnoi.According to allegations, a group of unidentified miscreants took away the businessman from in front of his house in...
One person was killed and two others were injured on Saturday in an accident in Rangia on Saturday.According to police, the incident took place in Rangia in Kamrup (Rural) district when Rajat Ali died on the spot after his motorcycle rammed into an electric post after hitting a pedestrian Mustafijur Rahman at Karara on Indo-Bhutan international road. Rajat Ali and his father Jalaluddin Ahmed were travelling on the motorcycle. Jalaluddinand Mistafijur were injured and were admitted to Gauhati Medical College and Hospital.
The overall flood situation improves further on Saturday. The water level of the Brahmaputra river and its tributaries are receding gradually 100 hours after cessation of the rains. A section of the trapped people are preparing to leave the make shift camps. According to information, over 35 lakh people in 19 districts have been reeling under the floodwaves where the toll stands at 19.Over 3000 villages have been hit in latest wave of flood. The affected districts Barpeta, Darrang, Dhemaji, Dibrugarh, Golaghat, Goalpara, Jorhat, Kamrup rural and metro, Lakhimpur, Morigaon, Nagaon, Nalbari, Sibsagar, Sonitpur, Tinsukia, Dhubri, Baksa and Udalguri.
Sivasagar police have achieved a major breakthrough in the recent of powerful blast that left a businessman killed and ten others injured. Police have arrested six youths in this connection and the initial confessional statements have suggested it a handiwork of ULFA. All the six have been arrested during a special operation led by additional SP in Sivasagar and Dibrugarh districts. They have been identified as Naba Gogoi, Narayan Gogoi, Papu Chetia, Nabajyoti Baruah and Upen Dihingia. According to inputs available with police, ULFA leader Bhaskar Nath alias Amlan Baruah planted the bomb near the Laxmi Talkies on Monday which exploded at 9 in the evening leaving Nirud Das dead.
A three-member central team has arrived in Kaziranga on Saturday to probe into the sudden rise in rhino poaching in the national park. Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said that that the CBI inquiry recommended by his government into rhino killings would be able to curb these incidents.
One more rhinoceros was found dead at the Kaziranga National Park on Saturday. The carcass of the mature female rhino was found floating in the flood waters at Gorakati under Bagori Range of the park on Saturday. But the its horn was found intact. The horn from the body of the rhino was handed over to the forest department.
CPM polit bureau member Brinda Karat came down heavily on Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi for coming out in support of FDI in multi-brand retail.Talking to reporters on Friday in Guwahati, Karat said that the Assam government can’t help the farmers when they are affected by flood. “But how FDI in retail would help the farmers. What can be more bankrupt than such an understanding?", she said.
CPM on Friday on Friday said that Assam flood is a fit case of national disaster.Talking to reporters in Guwahati on Friday CPI(M) Politburo member Brinda Karat said that at a time when lakhs of people are reeling under flood, displaced people are living without food, without clothes, the cente should declare it as national disaster.She alleged that the Centre and state have not done enough to mitigate the misery of the people in third wave of floods to hit the state. He has asked her party cadres to mobilise resources for helping the flood affected people.
The repeated incidents of rhino poaching seem to have triggered an acrimonious blamegame between ruling Congress and opposition parties.
A stunned forest minister Rockybul Hussain lashed out at AGP and BJP for blaming it all on him. Hussain has already alleged a smear campaign against him. AGP also blamed it all on the government’s failure. But Chief minister Tarun Gogoi flayed AGP and BJP alleging that more rhinos were killed in Kaziranga during the AGP and NDA regimes.
International animal body smugglers are involved in the Kaziranga rhino poaching. Four rhinos were shot dead in Karbi Anglong bordering Nagaland. The needle of suspicion points at KLNLF, KPLT and NSCN.According to initial inputs, rhino horns are routed through Dimapur to south-east Asian countries where a rhino horn is sold at Rs50 lakh to Rs1crore in the international market.
Army would counter rhino poachers in Kaziranga. Dispur has asked police to work jointly with army and para paramilitary forces to stop the repeated incidents of rhino poaching.
An anti-poaching squad would be set up in a day or two with focus on the 860 sq km Kaziranga National Park.
The move comes following the shooting of four rhinos within 48 hours. Two rhinos were hacked off. Forces would be allowed to take appropriate action against anyone involved in poaching.
Comments
Pages
Add new comment