Skip to content Skip to navigation

Anti dam protest greets Jairam Ramesh in Guwahati

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.


Comments

Hayang's picture

--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.

Pages

Add new comment

Assamese Translator

Assam Times seeks English to Assamese translators!
Join our volunteer team.
Email editor@assamtimes.org.

Random Stories

Toll gate attacked in Chirang

16 May 2015 - 7:00pm | Hantigiri Narzary
Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) activists today attacked a toll gate at Dahalapara along the 31 c national highway under Bijni subdivision of Chirang district.According to sources said around a...

Uglier than Ranjan Daimary

7 May 2010 - 5:02am | Peter Alex Todd
The very next day after the NDFB chief Ranjan Daimary was produced in the CJM court, in Guwahati, I got a call from my office to do a story with an alert that a mail has been forwarded to me to...

Barun Bhuyan

Poll preparedness for 11th NCHAC

13 Apr 2013 - 5:51pm | Anup Biswas
The Returning Officer as well as Deputy Commissioner, Dima Hasao District Barun Bhuyan appealed to the media persons to extend their cooperation to the district administration in conducting free,...

25 people wanted in Burdwan case

19 Oct 2014 - 8:35am | AT News
At least 25 people associated with a number of organizations are wanted in Assam in connection with the Burdwan blast. These people or their organizations are believed to have been touch with the...

Other Contents by Author

The 28th Assam Convention was held at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Boston, Massachusetts on Saturday, June 30 and Sunday, July 1 amidst much fun fare. For the first time ever in the history of Assam Association of North America (AANA) conventions, the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Assam addressed the gathering on June 30 in an attractive ‘Town Hall’ format meeting, where everyone got a chance to ask the Chief Minister, Mr.Tarun Gogoi about their home state Assam. The Chief Minister was accompanied by A.K.Sachan, IAS and Hemanga Sarma, IAS and answered questions on a variety of topics ranging from flood situation in Guwahati to NRI investment in Assam, education, AIDS/HIV etc....
Agartala: Gandhism is catching and fast. This time it is the turn of surrendered militants of National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT-BM) to follow the Gandhism path alleging that the State Government has still not fulfilled their demands. Mantu Koloi alongwith 72 armed cadres had surrendered before security forces in May, 2004 following an agreement with the State Government. But Koloi says that till date the State Government has not taken any steps towards the fulfilment of promises which were made at the time of their surrender.The former rebel leader said that as such they have been compelled to organize a semi-nude march towards the Governor House on July 25 to apprise Governor DN...
Indian companies are rapidly expanding their global footprint, often through acquisitions funded by canny investors who have recognised the competence of Indian managers and the skills they bring to the table. But there is a flipside to this. An estimated one-fifth of India’s current workforce from shop-floor workers to top managers which has played a crucial part in the transformation of Indian business will be out of the workforce by the year 2010. And the reason is that they would have passed India’s absurdly low retirement age of 58 in most corporate organizations and 60 in a few. It is a well know fact that it is felt that India’s much-touted ‘demographic...
GUWAHATI : Indian Bank opened its first all woman manned branch of in the GNB Road in the city. According to the Bank sources, this is the first all woman branch of Indian Bank in the country.The bank was inaugurated by Ms Sundara Rajan, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Indian Bank. Ms Rajan speaking on the occasion had high expectations from the Branch and said that if the is model is successful, Indian Bank would look at opening many such branches in the Country. The Reserve Bank of India, Regional Director, Ms Sewali Choudhury was also present on the occasion.
Guwahati : Assam’s flood situation has taken a grim turn on Tuesday as the Brahmaputra and its tributaries are flowing at an alarming level. The situation has gone from bad to worse following incessant rainfall during the last 24 hours.Officials here say all surface communications in the worst-hit Dhemaji district are still remaining disrupted which has left lakhs of people displaced. With fresh rainfall in some places in the morning more areas in the district have come under the surging waters. The water levels had showed a receding trend on Monday. According to officials engaged in the relief works, the district administration is providing shelter to the marooned people in four...
As what is seen as a precedence for many such moves in the future, a proposal to raise the retirement age from 58 to 60 years for employees of profit-making central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) has been approved by the Union Cabinet. The ministries which are responsible for the administration of the respective companies would be empowered to approve the proposals of CPSEs to enhance the age of retirement of its employees from 58 to 60 years, provided that these companies have made net profits for the last three years continuously and should have positive net worth on a sustained basis, government officials said. “This benefit will be available to only those PSUs that have not...
There are floods in Balipara now. Reports have come in that there are twelve villages which are under water. Water is receding but the situation is still grim. Emergency services have been pressed into operation
GUWAHATI: Caught in a Catch-22 situation, Assam Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi, is willing to hand over the probe into the killing of Phul Chand Ram to the CBI but has said that this will not stop the flow of investments into the state.Talking to the reporters on Monday, Mr Gogoi says his government will soon order a CBI inquiry into the crossfire which left the FCI executive director Dr Ram killed.“We are always against allowing rebel groups to hold people for ransom by kidnapping officials and setting conditions for their safe release. I rejected the plea of the Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar to release ULFA top guns Mrinal Hazarika and Pallab Chetia for release of Dr Ram as...
Guwahati: In connection with the abduction and recovery of the dead bodies of the CCI Manager Kailash Jha and PWD junior Engineer Ajay Kumar Deka, the City Police has arrested five persons, inlcuding an Army officer, for kidnap and murder of Deka. They have been identified as Lance Naik Akon Kumar Das, Jitu Choudhury, Rinku Choudhury, Subhas Das and Amar Thapa. While Jitu and Rinku, both brothers, were arrested from Baksa district last night, Subhas Das and Amar Thapa, both surrendered ULFA rebels, were arersted from Pathsala, Barpeta today. Sources said that the late Deka took Rs. 7 lakh assuring to provide them jobs.Meanwhile the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh has condemned the incident...
Mumbai : Sunita Bhuyan, daughter of famed violinist, Minoti Khaund has been carving her own niche in India’s cultural and corporate world. Bhuyan has been performing in various functions and meets in India alongwith her mother as well as independently. With corporates, she has been presenting workshops on music as a tool for holistic development of corporate executives across various international forums. Recently she had given a performance at NCPA in Mumbai about the influence of classical ragas on some of the Assamese folk music styles. “Bihu is a popular form of folk song as well as dance,” said Bhuyan, who explored the folk, devotional and contemporary music of...