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.
26 Feb 2021 - 9:39am | CM Paul
Guwahati: Salesian Province of Guwahati inaugurated Don Bosco Bharosa, the Migrant Desk, on 24th February 2021.
“Bharosa in Hindi language means trust and Don Bosco Brand is trusted by both job...
31 Dec 2010 - 1:13pm | Peter Alex Todd
Taking a stroll around the village of Sijubari No.1, in Kamrup district of Boko, would remind few lines of Poet Robert Frost,
"Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village,...
5 Jun 2020 - 2:08pm | AT News
The relevance of celebrating World Environment Day has become more significant owing to a world-wide Pandemic. However, in Assam, the underlying objective behind celebration of this Day seemed...
31 May 2011 - 12:58pm | editor
Atleast 40 people are feared dead when a bus fell on a waterbody in betweem Hajo and Nalbari. The tragic incident took place when a bus carrying a marriage party bearing no AS 25 A 1949 fell on a...
A special operation unit of the Assam police apprehended a hardcore ISI activist on Friday from the city. The arrested activist S M Alam alias Mujhibulla Alam alias Ashif Alam hails from Dhaka in Bangladesh and has been actively operating in the north eastern region. Prior to it, he was a Jammat-e-Islamic activist closely associated with Chatra Sibir. In 1993 he joined the Pakistan based Jehadi outfit, Harkat-ul-Mujahiddin after undergoing training in the Pakistan occupied Kashmir. In 2005, he worked as a Jamatul Mujahiddin activist in Bangladesh. From 2006 and onwards he has been working as an ISI activist. Now he is the ISI’s keyman operating in the north eastern region and has been...
The School of Journalism, Southern Illinois University Carbondale (USA) in association with Guwahati Press Club has organised a two-day media workshop for mid career journalists on strengthening media professionalism and the NGO-media interface in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka for HIV/AIDS coverage. The workshop, to be held at Guwahati Press Club, will begin on January 4.The workshop will include joint sessions for all participants together including one headed by a Guwahati physician who is expert in HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, and breakout sessions specifically for journalists, journalism educators and Non-Governmental Organizations.The programme will be led by two American faculty...
The injured Asom Gana parishad MLA Padma Hazarika has been shifted to the Guwahati Neurological Research Centre on Saturday morning. According to information, doctors here say the legislator from Sootea needs more treatment and suspect more bullets might be there inside his body.The regional party has condemned the attack on Mr Hazarika and has demanded immediate arrest of the miscreants involved in it.In a memorandum to the Union Home Minister, the party demanded that the Assam Government should be dismissed immediately after its failure to maintain law and order. He said that the Government has lost all credibility to remain in power because of lack of administrative control.The party...
Asom Gana Parishad general secretary and former Union steel minister Birendra Prasad Baishya was seriously injured at a car accident in Silchang under Nelie police station in Marigaon district on Friday at eleven in the morning. Two people died and several others injured in the accident.The accident took place while an Indigo car had its head on collision in Silchang with the Tezpur bound car where the AGP leader Mr Baishya was on his way to Tezpur with his two escorts.. The driver and a passenger of the Indigo car died on the spot. The deceased have been identified as Jyotish Chandra Baruah and Reha Chandra Boro.The seriously injured Mr Baishya was later rushed to the Guwahati Neurological...
Asom Gana Parishad MLA, from Sootea, Padma Hazarika was shot by some unidentified miscreants in his home town on Thursday night. Further, the miscreants set on fire his vehicle.According to information, the miscreants sprayed five rounds of bullets and he fell injured. Later he was rushed to the hospital where his condition is said to be out of danger.Investigation is going on but no one has so far been picked up in this connection.
A Powerful Bomb has been exploded in Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express in early morning at 1 AM. 5 person have been killed and many people injured. The explosion took place between Naojan and Sungajan area (Near Bokajan) of Golaghat district. The bomb was placed in a railway track which derailed 4 coaches off the train. Details awaited.Update:The National Security Guards officials will assist the probe into the blast that cracked the New Delhi bound Rajdhani Express at the dead of the night on Wednesday by the Assam Adivasi Liberation Army leaving five people killed and four others injured in between Naojan and Chungajan.Confirming this in New Delhi officials with the Union home ministry say...
"They had migrated to Asom about 150 years ago as labourers for tea gardens and are not the sons of the soil here. When the Bodos are not given tribal status in other parts of the region like the hill district of Karbi Anglong in Asom and Meghalaya, how do the Adivasis consider themselves as indigenous tribals?" -- Anjali Daimari The above statement made by Anjali Daimari, the advisor of the Indigenous Women's Forum of North-East India, who is also the President of the Bodo Women Justice Forum, regarding the ST politics in Assam justifies her stand on the issue. If the whole thing is observed apolitically the matter finds its just solution...
Darrang College, a premier institution of higher education in the northern Assam, is organising a two-day national seminar on "Sustainable Growth of Eco-tourism in North-East India with special reference to Tezpur" on February 2, 2008 at the college premises.Organised by the Department of Commerce and sponsored by the University Grant Commission (UGC), the sub-themes of the workshop will be community-based eco-tourism, eco-conservation of nature, eco-friendly destination planning and marketing, environmental impacts, prospects of rural tourism in Assam, eco-tourism and economic benefits, management problems of eco-tourism etc.KOUSHIK HAZARIKA
A population estimation of the eastern swamp deer was carried out at Kaziranga National Park on December 6. A total of 681 swamp deers were counted, out of that 189 are male, 382 female and 107 yearlings. The eastern swamp deer, known Dal Horina in Asomiya, is a schedule I animal species under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. It may be mentioned here that the Kaziranga swamp deer is the last surviving population of the eastern swamp deer group. Other world population are the central group found in the Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh and the northern group found in Uttar Pradesh and along the Indo-Nepal border.KOUSHIK HAZARIKA, BOKAKHAT
The Duliajan AASU unit has called for a 36-hour Oil India Limited (OIL) Chaka Bandh from Saturday morning to protest against OIL’s failure to honour the AASU’s 21-point charter of demands.According to information, the student organisation will stop plying of OIL vehicles on the road during this period forcing the authorities to beef up security.Speaking to Assam Times over telephone from Dibrugarh, the district AASU leaders say despiterepeated assurances, the OIL authorities, nothing has happened. “We are bound to continue our agitation,” they say.Notably, the AASU inked a pact with the OIL in full view of the district administration in 1990 to fulfill the AASU...
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