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.
13 May 2008 - 8:23pm | editor
Altogether 14 people have been injured, four them seriously, when a fast moving passenger bus collided head on with an auto van near BH College area in Assam's Barpeta district on Tuesday morning....
7 Aug 2012 - 4:14am | editor
After the anti-corruption cell raided his Tarun Nagar based residence and firm house, RH Khan said that he was the victim of a nefarious conspiracy. Talking to reporters on Monday in Guwahati, the...
14 Nov 2015 - 6:00am | AT News
Difficult Dialogues is an independent, non-partisan forum for discussing critical issues concerning lives of billions in South Asia. Curated as an annual festival of topical ideas and motions, it is...
2 Mar 2017 - 8:55am | Mowsam Hazarika
The country is caught in a grim crisis of skilled workers where 2.3% of the workforce has undergone formal skill training as compared to 68% in the UK, 75% in Germany, 52% in USA, 80% in Japan and 96...
Eminent theatre personality of Assam Dulal Roy will attend the 'Guest of the Month' programme of Guwahati Press Club on July 4 (Friday). The programme will begin at 1 pm.The National School of Drama graduate will interact on various issues related to theatre movement in Northeast with the member-journalists during the programme. All members are requested to attend the same.
The North east region will no longer be lingering in the back stage of progress if the North East Vision 2020 is to be believed. To be released by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in the national capital on Wednesday, the document, first of its kind in the region will pave the way for a structural transformation in terms of development ensuring a GDP 12.95 per cent growth per annum from the current 7.5 per cent.Sources here say the entire document aims at bridging the yawning gap of North East with the rest of the country with 9 per cent growth riding piggyback on the investment of Rs. 70,000 to 80,000 crore each financial year which is expected to push the gross budgetary support of 10 per...
Violence scared Nagaland has turned to God for peace, desperately seeking respite from factional fights, residents of Dimapur, Nagaland’s commercial hub, organized special prayers on Sunday 08.06.08 for divine intervention. It marked the end of seven-day fasting by Naga natives of Dimapur in a bid to ensure the shower of blessing from Lord Jesus Christ. “We are sick of the killings in the past few months and it seems only divine intervention can bring peace here”,said N. Neikha of the North East India Christian Revival Church which organized the ‘peace crusade’.On 16th May 2008, the 15 armed cadres of NSCN (Unification) were killed in a fierce fight with NSCN (...
Corrupt practices by politicians are not a new phenomenon. It can be conceded that it has begun from the colonial era. But it took a wide shape in post colonial period. From the very date of freedom various development plans and programmes including Five Year plans have been implemented fruitlessly. Because more than seventy percent people even now are in abject poverty. Today it is well-realized that the fund granted against any development scheme is largely misappropriated. In this context we may cite what our former prime minister (late)Rajiv Gandhi predicts two decade ago that only 15 percent of a rupee goes for appropriation. And now is son Rahul remarks that not 15 percent only 5...
With a view to furthering the publicity of Assam’s satriya culture in the western countries, a 12-member team from Majuli is leaving for France on Monday.According to information, led by Bhabananda Borbayan, the delegation is schedule to perform satriya dance in altogether six big cities in France under the patronage of a non governmental organisation Preserver Majuli. The delegation comprises Bhabananda Barbayan, Dulal Chandra Saikia, Bhaben Bayan, Govinda Kalita, Madhav Kalita, Naren Baruah, Mukunda Saikia, Upen Bora, Niranjan Saikia, Baburam Saikia, Krishna Kumar Saikia, Sarbananda Duwari and Dr Tultul Bora. Notably, the chief of the France based NGO invited the delegation with...
Hours after the fatal blast that left seven people dead in lower Assam’s Baska district, the ULFA militants made yet another strike at a police patrol team injuring three security personnel and a civilian. According to information, the ULFA militants riding a motorcycle attacked a security patrol at village Tetelia in Nagaon district at around 8.30 evening.. The injured were shifted to a hospital.This was followed by the killing of a surrendered ULFA rebel in Mangaldoi on late Sunday.. Police suspect it to be the handiwork of ULFA. Investigation is on.On the other hand, the death toll in the Kumarikata weekly market on Sunday has mounted to 7 with the death of two more inured persons...
Altogether five people died and more than forty injured in lower Assam’s Baska district when suspected ULFA militants made a powerful strike at the Kumarikata weekly market on Sunday with a blast. According to information, the blast took pace at around 1-30 afternoon and the bomb was stripped at a bicycle which let off immediately after the militants who planted it escaped unhurt.Four persons in the market teeming with hundreds of people died on the spot while more than fifty others have been left injured. A seriously injured person died on the way to the Guwahati medical College Hospital. Twenty three injured people have been admitted in the Guwahati Medical College Hospital. Eight...
A 14-feet-long python weighing more than 50 kg was rescued from a pond in Jorhat town and handed on Saturday whuich was later handed over to the forest department.According to information, the snake was found in a small pond near the Jorhat engineering College in Kasogoral area by the local people, said forest department sources.The authorities have allowed to release the python in the nearby Kaziranga National Park.Photo: UB PHotos
A few hours after two companies of ULFA's crack unit, the banned insurgent outfit has threatened to target the minister along with a section of political leaders alleging that they have been engineering a divide in the outfit. ULFA commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah in a message emailed last evening said Tarun Gogoi was toeing the same line as that of former chief ministers Hiteswar Saikia and Prafulla Kumar Mahanta.He warned the Chief Minister to recall that these ULFA cadres had in the past made several attacks on minister Bhumidhar Barman and that Barman, survived three attacks during 1992-96 when he was an education minister in the then Congress Government of Hiteswar Saikia.An angry...
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