GUWAHATI, Dec 3 � Industries and Commerce Minister Pradyut Bardoloi today said that the State Government had no problem in having a dialogue with the groups opposing the construction of the Lower Subansiri hydro-electric project but that the �right moment for talks have not arrived.�
The minister also revealed that a further study on the areas of concern as raised in the Gauhati University-Dibrugarh University-IIT Guwahati expert committee report was on by a Planning Commission-appointed expert panel.
The agitators have been preventing transportation of machinery-laden trucks to the project site at Gerukamukh for the past few days.
Addressing a press conference, Bardoloi claimed that the State Government was doing everything possible to assuage the aspersions of the people over possible adverse impacts of the Lower Subansiri project.
Bardoloi who asserted that �the State Government would not do anything that could cause harm to the people�, however, could not come up with a convincing answer as to what prevented the Government from having a talk with the agitating organizations at a time when the opposition to the project was at its peak.
�The right moment for the talks has not yet come,� he said. He was also unable to explain why work in the project � as demanded by the agitating organizations � could not be kept in abeyance pending submission of a final report by the expert group.
Bardoloi also denied having received any letter from the All Assam Students� Union (AASU) calling for a talk with the Government on the issue.
Revealing that over 45 per cent work of the Lower Subansiri project had been completed, the minister said that Assam would press for more power than the originally stipulated 208 MW.
�We will seek 600 MW power, and that is why we have not signed the MoU as yet,� he said.
