Skip to content Skip to navigation

Anti-Dam Voices Heard in New Delhi

By Nava Thakuria |

While anti-big dam protesters have assembled in eastern Assam for a mammoth public rally at Thekeraguri, serious concern is expressed in the national capital in an intense discussion. Addressing the rally at North Lakhimpur, eminent environmentalist Medha Patkar reiterated her stand that the people living in the catchment areas own a river and hence their interest must not be sacrificed to please the corporate players while going for larger hydro-electricity projects in India.


Meanwhile, attending a dialogue in memory of pioneer environmental journalist and activist of international repute, Anil Agarwal various speakers put forwards their fears that the hydro-electricity projects in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam would leave a devastating impact on the northeastern part of India and also in Bangladesh.


Organized by the Centre for Science and Environment at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, the two-day meeting was started with a keynote address by Sunita Narain, editor of Down To Earth, a CSE publication, where hundreds of environment activists and journalists across the country have participated.


Addressing the gathering, Partha J Das of Aaranyak (Guwahati, Assam) highlighted the overview of the government policy for Green Clearance to various hydro-electricity projects in northeast India. He revealed in his presentation that already 147 MoUs (out of 168 planned large HEPs in the region) had been signed with the Arunachal government (till July 2011).


“At least 55 projects have obtained scoping clearance and 12 projects (LSHEP for 2000 MW at Subansiri, Ranganadi-I for 405 MW at Ranganadi, Kameng for 600 MW at Kameng, Siyom /Middle Siang for 1000 MW at Siyom, Demwe Lowe for 1750MW at Lohit, Tawang-I for 750 MW at Tawang, Tawang-II for 750 MW at Tawang, Pare for 110 MW at Pare/Dikrong, Tato-II for 700 MW at Siang, Khuitam Lewuitkare for 66 MW at Gang/Bishom/Kameng, Gongri for 90 MW at Kameng) have received the final Environment Clearance in the bio-diversity hotspot region,” Mr Das pointed out.


He however argued that the environment impact assessment process, based on which the clearances are given, are inferior and misleading. Moreover the cumulative environment impact assessment is not done in-spite of the fact that the basins of each major river would have multiple projects. Similarly, the adequate study on downstream impacts is ignored jeopardizing ecosystems, lives and livelihoods, he added. Moderated by Himanshu Thakkar of South Asia Network on Dams, River & People, the session was also addressed by Chandra Bhushan of CSE, Bimal Bhai from Matu Jan Sangathan with many others.

Add new comment

Assamese Translator

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

Random Stories

ADBU Yoga fest

29 Apr 2016 - 10:29pm | CM Paul
Holding a yoga fest in a university campus in northeast India is a rare event! One of the varsities in Assam took a bold step to hold a two day Yoga Fest in anticipation of the International Yoga Day...
Arabinda Rajkhowa effigy burnt

Massive protest in Baska

18 Apr 2014 - 4:29pm | AT News
Over ten thousand people staged dharna in front of Baska Deputy Commissioner's office a day after the attack on Nava Sarania's office in Mussolpur.    The protestors in large number...

Gogoi visits puja mandap in Guwahati

5 Oct 2011 - 8:11pm | editor
The entire Assam is in the grip of Durga Puja festivities. Maha Navami puja is being observed a day before the immersion of the idols. People of all walks of life young and old alike are lined up...

Media keeps dissidence alive: CM

21 Mar 2014 - 2:21pm | Jintul Talukdar
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Friday said that dissidence is surviving in media only and that there is no crippling dissidence within the ruling party.    Talking to reporters in...

Other Contents by Author

Centenary celebration of Assam sports journalism begins

Guwahati: A year-long celebration of 100 years of sports journalism in Assam begins coinciding on the day while the first ever news related to a football competition is published in Asomiya (a weekly news magazine mentored by Chandra Kumar Agarwala) on 1  July 1923. Assam Sports Journalists Association (ASJA), which is affiliated with the Sports Journalists Federation of India (a national affiliate of the International Sports Press Association), has taken the lead in celebrating the occasion that will culminate on 1  July next year. On Saturday, flags for ASJA and the centenary celebration were hoisted by ASJA’s founder president Balendra Mohan Chakraborty and his successor...

Why Assam media loses public benevolence

Reactions from the public (sensitive readers) against a news item in any newspaper (also news channel) are usual in India, but outrages against the mainstream media outlets in digital platforms for not covering a particular issue is definitely an unusual phenomenon. The north-eastern state of Assam witnessed such public fury against some of the editor-journalists for avoiding press conferences by opposition political parties where they targeted the state chief minister for his family’s alleged land scam. The organized public uproar in the alternate media was so intense that the celebrity editor-journalists of Assam did not dare to clarify their positions. They preferred to avoid the...

Manipur scribe assaulted, IJU demands punishment to culprits

Hyderabad: The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) has strongly condemned the incident of assault on a Manipur journalist and urged the state chief minister, N. Biren Singh, to book the culprits under the law. The National Union of Subscribes also wished for an early recovery of Elangbam Rameshwar, who works as a Thoubal correspondent for the Naharolgi Thoudang regional daily newspaper, which is published from Imphal. Local media hinted that the handiwork was masterminded by some Congress workers in the Thoubal locality of the north-eastern state, who were attacked by a group of 20 to 25 masked men in the morning hours on 24 October. The rural reporter faced assault at his residence in the...

IJU meet concludes in Hyderabad emphasizing on journo-safety & security, PCI reform, minimum facilities

Hyderabad: The national executive committee meeting of Indian Journalists Union (IJU), which concluded on Sunday in the capital city of Telangana, discussed various burning issues concerning the practitioners of journalism across India and emphasized on effective safety & security to journalists, reforms in Press Council of India (PCI) and basic minimum facilities to the media fraternity sustaining the spirit under freedom of the press to serve the largest democracy on the globe. Chaired by IJU president K Sreenivas Reddy, the two-day meeting held at Tourism Plaza in Begumpet locality expressed serious concern over killings of journalists by anti-social elements and filing of cases...

Terror charges framed against Arakanese editor

Guwahati: Interviewing a leader of an armed outfit in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) and publishing its substance through a portal can be termed as a serious offence against the concerned editor. The fate of Khaing Mrat Kyaw, chief editor of Narinjara news portal, based in Sittwe of Rakhine (also known as Arakan) province in western Myanmar indicates the state of media’s freedom in the southeast Asian country. While the world is fighting against Covid-19 pandemic with over a hundred thousand casualties, the Myanmar authorities have framed charges of glorifying terrorism against the editor for uploading an interview with Khaing Thu Ka, spokesperson of Arakan Army, an ethnic revolutionary...

News industry must regain reliability for own survival

Amidst myriad devastation created by the novel corona virus around the world, news industries might learn to survive with regained credibility, continued authenticity and most sought after accountability in the post Covid-19 pandemic era. Earlier if these principles were necessary for the mainstream media, now it becomes an utmost priority for its survival. Besides the news outlets, working journalists will also face the same heat.  As millions of people are infected with the deadly virus with thousands of casualties across the globe, once a vibrant media fraternity finds itself in an awkward situation as they start losing their readers, viewers, appreciators along with the...

Heart awareness rally in the city

Guwahati: City-based Dispur Hospitals in association with ‘The Heart’, a non-government organization, have organized an awareness rally on the occasion of World Heart Day on 29 September in the morning hours on streets of the pre-historic city, said the organisers in a press meet held in Guwahati Press Club on Saturday. Created by the World Heart Federation, the heart day updates people around the globe that the cardiovascular disease, including heart disease & stroke, remains the leading cause of human death. Moreover it highlights the probable actions for individuals to prevent and control the disease. “Over 17.9 million people die from CVDs worldwide every year and according to...

Mounting demand for conferring Bharat Ratna on Dalai Lama

Dharamshala: Indian supporters for a free Tibet have urged the Union government in New Delhi to confer Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest civilian honour, on the Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama for his immense contributions in creating goodwill for India in the last six decades. In a declaration, adopted in the 6th All India Tibet Support Groups’ Conference held on 15 and 16 June in Dharamshala township of Himachal Pradesh under the chairmanship of Rinchin Khandu Khrimey, national convener of Core Group for Tibetan Cause (CGTC), it was accomplished that the Nobel laureate continues to be a holy ambassador of Indian culture enriched with non-violence, compassion...

Media OPD clinic concludes

Guwahati: City based Barthakur Clinic Hospital conducted a brief media OPD clinic at Guwahati Press Club on Saturday (23 February 2019), where nurses Lucy L Chongloi and Kapila Lama Borah checked blood pressures of the participants. It may be mentioned that the participating scribes have maintained the readings of normal blood pressure in the camp.

Assamese scribe extols Singapore’s great leap

“In a single generation, Singapore became a first world country. It is now one of the wealthiest nations in the world while maintaining social harmony and remaining free of corruption and crime,” so said senior journalist Hiren Phukan, presently retired after a successful career in the island nation. He was speaking to scribes in the city on Friday through video conferencing from Singapore as part of Guwahati Press Club’s ‘Meet the Press’ programme. Recalling Singapore’s trajectory after independence from Malyasia, Phukan dwelt on the export-led industrialization rather than import substitution that drew multi-national companies to its shores. “The country was made attractive for foreign...