GUWAHATI, May 23 � The All Assam Students� Union (AASU) has called upon Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to make public the report of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on the construction of mega dams. The AASU also demanded a cumulative downstream impact study of the proposed 168 hydropower projects in Arunachal Pradesh.
In a release here today, the AASU said that the Chief Minister failed to give convincing replies to the issues raised by the people of Assam on the issue of mega dams. The Government also failed to implement the recommendations of the expert committee constituted with experts from Gauhati and Dibrugarh Universities and Indian Institute of Technology , Guwahati as well as that of the House Committee.
The AASU said that though a Group of Ministers was formed to hold talks with different organizations, the report of it has not yet made public because of the reasons best known to the Chief Minister. The people of Assam have the right to know whether their interests will be protected, the AASU said.
The AASU called upon the Chief Minister to arrange for a discussion between the experts of Assam and those from other parts of India and abroad on the safety of the Lower Subansiri project and demanded that the construction of the project should be suspended till such a discussion is held.
The students� body made it clear that it is not against development but instead of mega dams, small hydropower projects should set up.
