GUWAHATI, Aug 7 � Reacting to the reported statements made by National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) before the media on the issue of Lower Subansiri Hydel Project, the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) today said that the uttering smacked of a colonial mindset and was meant to mislead the people of Assam on a life-and-death matter.
In a statement, the KMSS said that it was �natural that a Central Government undertaking following the mandate of looting the State�s resources would not understand the voice of legitimate and progressive protest by the people to secure their rights.�
Pointing out that the much-talked-about free power the State would get from the project was an insignificant 1.25 per cent (25 MW), the KMSS asked what answer the NHPC authorities had to this. �Assam gets six per cent free power from the Kopili project on the Assam-Meghalaya border,� it said.
Asserting that the people of Assam and Arunachal were the legitimate owners of the 2,000 MW power sought to be generated by the project, the KMSS said that the perilous impacts of the project would manifest in the form of lesser water flow on the Subansiri and the Brahmaputra in winter which would destroy all agricultural activities and biodiversity in the Brahmaputra basin.
�The people of Assam are never for the project and the KMSS would continue to lend its weight behind this mass movement. The project has to be abandoned in the greater interest of the State and its people,� it said.
