DHEMAJI, Jan 5: The Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) has pledged to intensify its ongoing movement against the 2000-MW Subansiri Lower Hydroelectric Project (SLHEP) at the Gerukamukh portion of the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border.
The AJYCP, Dhemaji unit, on Monday held a meeting in the presence of its central committee functionaries and discussed the issue threadbare.
The AJYCP central committee’s assistant secretary Ratul Borgohain, who is a native of Dhemaji, said the central committee of the student body has given instruction to its Dhemaji and Lakhimpur district committees to intensify their ongoing agitation against the controversial project this month.
The AJYCP’s decision has come after Union Power Secretary Sanjiv Nandan Sahai visited the SLHEP at Gerukamukh in December last year and reviewed the progress of the project works.
Later, officials of the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC), which is constructing the dam, assured the Union Ministry of Power that the project would be commissioned by March 2022.
Earlier, the AJYCP, along with the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), Dhemaji district unit, resorted to a series of movements against the mega dam project at Gogamukh in Dhemaji district.
Notably, there has been no work since December 2011 because of the agitation by anti-dam activists over downstream concerns. The AJYCP and other agitating organizations, however, are rigid on their stand that their movement against the project will continue until the Central government ensures total safety and security of the people living in the downstream areas in Assam.
It is feared that the mega dam, constructed in a high seismic zone, will collapse in the event of a natural calamity in the future and unleash an ecological catastrophe in parts of Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Majuli districts in downstream Assam.
