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.
21 Jan 2014 - 9:42am | AT News
Dispur police have arrested a dreaded ULFA militant who was camping in the city to strike in the run up to the Republic Day celebrations. A detonator was also found from his possession. Identified as...
30 Jul 2017 - 12:27am | AT News Guwahati
The city based Dispur Hospitals on Saturday (29 July) conducted the evening OPD clinic at Guwahati Press Club, where Dr Udayan Saikia offered free consultations to over 30 media persons along with...
4 Sep 2017 - 10:30am | AT News Guwahati
The vital issues confronting the state have created no less commotion in the Assam Assembly which begins its session from Monday. The United Opposition is trying to corner the BJP led coalition...
19 Apr 2012 - 11:46pm | editor
One person died and several others have been injured when a hailstorm lashed Sonari in Sivasagar district on Thursday.
It was at in the wee hours on Thursday when severe hailstorm ravaged a huge...
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has written to his counterparts in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharasthra to ensure safety of the Assamese people living in these states. According to information, Gogoi has received assurance that the people from the states would be provided adequate security in the time of ethnic clash in BTAD areas and Dhubri. Gogoi has given instruction to the district authorities to maintain calm even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and the Union Home Minister Sushil Shinde have given separate assurances that security will be provided to affected people.
Security forces have been put on alert to ensure peace and normalcy during the Independence Day celebrations across the state on Wednesday.
Additional forces are remaining stand by at sensitive locations to foil any attempt by militant outfits to create distrubances. The government has some intelligence inputs about ULFA’s possible attempt to disrupt the celebrations in Sivasagar, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Lakhimpur and Dhemaji districts.
A 'red alert' has already been sounded across the state, which witnessed a few IED blasts targeted at security personnel during the past couple of weeks, particularly in Goalpara district. The anti-talk faction of ULFA has called a customary state-...
Altogether 10,636 refugees having left the camps set up to accommodate the violence-hit people in BTAD areas and Dhubri. According to government sources, 2,92,852 inmates are still sheltering in 228 relief camps. Kokrajhar district alone has 10,300 inmates in the camps. Around 336 people went back in Chirang. But nobody in Dhubri district has left the camps. Among the total inmates in the relief camp, 61,439 belong to the Bodo community while 2,31,413 are from the minority community.
In Dhubri, 1,55,314 people are living in the relief camps, 77,459 in Kokrajhar, 47,477 in Chirang and 12,602 in Bongaigaon, the release said. Dhubri has the highest number of 133 relief camps followed by...
President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday expressed grave concerns over the escalating tensions between two ethnic groups in BTAD areas and Dhubri. In his presidential address to the nation on the eve of the Independence Day, Mukherjee said, "old fires that threaten the stability of the nation have not been fully doused the ash continues to smoulder. According to Mukherjee, minorities need solace, understanding and protection from aggression. Violence is not an option violence is an invitation to greater violence. He further said that peace was required for a new economic surge in the region that can quell the competitive causes of violence.
President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said that time has come to revisit the Assam Accord and adapt it to the present conditions. In his address to the nation on the eve of the 66th Independence Day on Tuesday, Mukherjee said that concrete attempts are on to heal the wounds which includes the Assam accord signed by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Notably, the Assam Accord was signed on August 15, 1985 by the Centre, state with student leaders of the Assam.
Sashastra Seema Bal personnel have been awarded with various police service medals on the eve of Independence Day. Constable Subhash Kumar was posthumously awarded with the Police Medal for gallantry for undertaking operations against insurgents in Kokrajhar district.
The other awardees of the President's Police Medal include DIGs Chanchal Shekhar (meritorious service) and Subhash Kumar (distinguished service). The Centre deploys SSB personnel along Indo-Nepal and Bhutan borders.
The Centre has asked all states to provide security to the north east people living across the country. In a communication, the Home Ministry said there have been reports of attack on students and other people from Northeast in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh and immediate steps must be taken to stop such kind of violence. These states include Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Delhi. The communiqué said that a large number of Northeast people have been living in these states which is why, additional forces have been deployed.
Police officials probing the recent Mumbai violence on BTAD riot have raised doubts on the role of a section of politicians from Assam. They sure of a particular political party’s role with vested interests and there was a strong possibility of some people from outside Mumbai being behind it.
The agencies have found that those who indulged in violence were brought to the spot in hired buses and were armed with lathis, sickles and other instruments. Two persons were killed and at least 55 injured when a protest in Mumbai’s Azad Maidan against BTAD riots and attacks on Muslims in Myanmar turned violent on Saturday with demonstrators torching vehicles and pelting stones.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Tuesday said that his government will give priority to the development of rural areas saying that only the rural Assam would help the state progress on all fronts. Addressing a function in Guwahati, he said that the government has been village-centric since day one as without the development of rural areas no real development can take place. Minister for Panchayat and Rural Development Rakibul Hussain said a total 60 vehicles had been distributed today in the first phase to the BDOs to improve their access to the remote areas.
AIUDF has asked Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to bear responsibility for the incident. Party president Badruddin Ajmal said that the law and order machinery in the state has failed and Gogoi as the chief minister has to bear the responsibility for this. The condition of the minorities affected in the violence was pathetic and they would not be able to return to their respective homes from the camps by August 15 as most are still traumatised.
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