GUWAHATI, June 15 � Expressing concern over the Centre�s move to construct a 9,600-MW hydro-electric project on the Siang in Arunachal Pradesh, the All Assam Students� Union (AASU) today dashed a memorandum to the Prime Minister demanding that all work on big dams in the North-east be kept in abeyance pending a thorough and impartial scientific assessment of all pros and cons, including downstream impact, biodiversity loss, impact on health of rivers and river eco-systems, etc.
In the memorandum, AASU president Dipanka Nath and general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself had endorsed the public opinion against mega dams at an election rally at Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh on February 22, 2014, and advocated a scientific study on diverse aspects of mega dams.
The AASU also pointed out that after the expert committee on the Lower Subansiri dam comprising scientists of Gauhati and Dibrugarh universities and IIT Guwahati had decided on having a cumulative impact assessment of all the proposed big dams in the region before allowing any such large-scale intervention on the North-east�s fragile geology and ecology, the Centre should have immediately facilitated such a study.
�The Centre can never evade its responsibility of facilitating a scientific study covering all the aspects of big dams, as it is a life-and-death issue for the people of the North-east. Shockingly, the Centre has now chosen to give the go-ahead to the massive Siang project in blatant disregard to what had been decided earlier. The AASU will never compromise on matters that affect the interests of the people of the region,� it said.
GUWAHATI, June 15 � Expressing concern over the Centre�s move to construct a 9,600-MW hydro-electric project on the Siang in Arunachal Pradesh, the All Assam Students� Union (AASU) today dashed a memorandum to the Prime Minister demanding that all work on big dams in the North-east be kept in abeyance pending a thorough and impartial scientific assessment of all pros and cons, including downstream impact, biodiversity loss, impact on health of rivers and river eco-systems, etc.
In the memorandum, AASU president Dipanka Nath and general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself had endorsed the public opinion against mega dams at an election rally at Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh on February 22, 2014, and advocated a scientific study on diverse aspects of mega dams.
The AASU also pointed out that after the expert committee on the Lower Subansiri dam comprising scientists of Gauhati and Dibrugarh universities and IIT Guwahati had decided on having a cumulative impact assessment of all the proposed big dams in the region before allowing any such large-scale intervention on the North-east�s fragile geology and ecology, the Centre should have immediately facilitated such a study.
�The Centre can never evade its responsibility of facilitating a scientific study covering all the aspects of big dams, as it is a life-and-death issue for the people of the North-east. Shockingly, the Centre has now chosen to give the go-ahead to the massive Siang project in blatant disregard to what had been decided earlier. The AASU will never compromise on matters that affect the interests of the people of the region,� it said.
