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.
28 Jan 2012 - 3:33pm | Anup Arandhara
Ex. President and missile man, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, attended the special meeting of the golden jubilee ceremony of the Oil India Higher secondary school, Duliajan on january 27 as a special...
28 Nov 2015 - 11:07am | Shalini Borgohain
A well attended rally pledged to vote BJP to power to help Assam get rid of utter mis governance and corruption regime of the Congress government. In his address, BJP president Amit Shah said the...
18 Jun 2009 - 5:40am | Dibya J Borthakur
An youth named Manabendra Nath of Sholmaree village under Morigaon district has been killed brutally on June 16th by some miscreants at Dharamtul . His body has been found in a shocking state nearby...
29 Nov 2011 - 2:16am | editor
Assam is all set to go to the Rajya Sabha by-polls for the lone seat on December 22. The election commission announced the poll schedule on Monday. The bye-election has been necessitated due to...
Goalpara district had a narrow escape from a major explosion when security forces intercepted at least 10 kg of RDX from three hardcore ULFA militants on Saturday. According to police, identified as Gokul Lahan, Ganesh Lahan and Dijen Buragohain, the hardcore ULFA ultras entered the district on Friday with explosives for engaging in subversive activities. They were nabbed them from Dhekialuci area in the wee hours and RDX was recovered from them. The arrested ultras admitted they were planning subversive activities in the district.
An uneasy situation is simmering in Karimganj a day after Borkhola MLA Rumi Nath and her second husband Zeki Zerir were beaten up by a mob of around 100 people. The incident took place at a hotel in Karimganj on Friday night. The duo visited Karimganj to meet the MLA’s father for the first time after she got married to her facebook friend. All of a sudden, a mob of 100 people storm the hotel and beat up them till policemen disperse the irate mob.
Then the couple were rushed to Silchar Medical College Hospital. On Saturday, they came to Dispur. Hundreds of her supporters blocked the vital roads in the entire district in several places in protest against the incident. The protesters...
ULFA’s pro talk team on Friday sought Centr’s help to bring back its general secretary Anup Chetia, who is in a Dhaka jail. They also sought the Centre's nod to travel to Bangladesh to meet the jailed colleague. They raised the demand when the ULFA delegation led by Arabinda Rajkhowa held fifth round of peace talks with Union home secretary RK Singh in Delhi on Friday. Apart from peace, the meeting discussed flood, immigration and cultural identity issues in presence of peace interlocutor PC Haldar
Electronic Media Forum Assam (EMFA) has planned for a three day long television journalism workshop in Guwahati during October. The workshop, where the news channel editors and senior journalists are set to attend as resource persons, will be open to all media persons belonging to both television and print media.
EMFA, in a meeting at Guwahati Press Club on Friday, has also decided to organize a regular interactive programme with television media personalities for the benefit of its members. Moreover, the forum will take initiative to send its members for study tours inside and outside the country.
The meeting also expanded the executive body of EMFA with inclusion of two members from...
Congress president Sonia Gandhi will be on a day long visit Assam next week to take stock of the flood situation that rendered lakhs of people homeless. Conforming this in New Delhi on Friday, Assam Pradesh Congress Committee president Bhubaneswar Kalita said that he appraised Gandhi of the entire scene where she expressed her willingness to visit the state soon.But the Congress president has not fixed her date. Congress president is likely to pay an aerial visit to all the flood-affected areas in Assam.
The Centre and ULFA’s pro-talk faction discussed several problems confronting Assam when they held the fifth rounds of peace talks in New Delhi on Friday. Led by ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, the eight member delegation met with Union home secretary RK Singh along with several other Assam government officials in presence of peace interlocutor PC Haldar.
Later talking to reporters, Singh and Rajkhowa said that the talks were fruitful and that they would carry forward the bid to buy permanent peace in Assam. Both sides discussed ground rules for ceasefire agreement, surrender of arms and ammunition and total halt of operations by security forces against the pro-talk faction....
Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on Friday Dispur’s intervention for safe release two Naga people kidnapped by KPLT on June 10 in Karbi Anglong. In a letter written to his Assam counterpart Tarun Gogoi, Rio said that there had not been any breakthrough for safe release of the two Nagas. KPLT militants kidnapped two Naga people, identified as Kelesel Kikhi and Khroviho Kikhi from Viswema village under Kohima district, along with a few other workers from a power project site in Karbi Anglong district.
Caught in brimful misery, forest officials in the flood-hit Kaziranga national park have been trying their best to save wildlife severely after the entire sanctuary came under the flash flood. According to Kaziranga National Park authorities, about 80 per cent of the park falling in Golaghat district have been submerged. Same it is in the Pabitora wildlife sanctuary in Morigaon district. Flood waters have not spared the Manas National Park located in Barpeta district. The animals have shifted to the highlands to get rid of the devastating floods that wreaked havoc in the entire state.
IAF helicopter pilots from Mohanbari airbase in Dibrugarh managed to evacuated eight people who were trapped in strong flood waters. These include three pregnant women and two accompanying doctors, from their stranded boat stuck in Dibong river near Sadiya in Tinsukia district.
According to IAF, the IAF crew navigated to the stranded boat and the pilot lowered the helicopter wheels to barely touch the nearby soft ground by holding on to the collective control, which requires consummate piloting skills.
Sivasagar district claiming at least eleven people within a period of 17 days. According to district health and family welfare officials, the victims hail from 5 in Geleki, Patsaku and Morabazar area. The health and family welfare department officials have collected around 50,000 blood samples to confirm the outbreak.
Comments
Pages
Add new comment