GUWAHATI, Oct 21 � The All Assam Students� Union (AASU) and the Takam Mising Porin Kebang (TMPK) will jointly hold an interactive meet of the members of the expert group that studied the Lower Subansiri Hydroelectric Power Project (LSHEP) and the common people on the mega dam issue at Gerukamukh on October 24. The expert group had submitted its report on June 28 last to the State Government and the NHPC authorities.
The expert group was constituted with the experts from Gauhati University, Dibrugarh University and IIT Guwahati, following a decision at a tripartite meeting held by the State Government with the representatives of the NHPC and the AASU on December 8, 2006.
In its final report, the group suggested that the construction activities of the LSHEP should be brought to an end. It has also forbidden construction of any mega dam in the seismically sensitive foothill areas of the Himalayas.
The Dhemaji district units of the AASU and the TMPK have been authorized to organize the October 24 interactive meet, which is the first of its kind the members of the expert group will take part in, said the AASU in a statement.
AGP: The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) today threatened a vigorous agitation on the mega dam issue if Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi fails to announce shortly his withdrawal of support to the mega dam lobby and unwavering support to the recommendations made by the expert group and the Assam Assembly House Committee on the issue.
From the statement made by the Chief Minister at a press conference in New Delhi on the mega dam issue one is bound to believe that he has been heavily bribed by the mega dam lobby and the Congress High Command has also mounted tremendous pressure on him to lend support to the mega dam lobby, said AGP chief spokesman Atul Bora.
Bora also refuted the charge of the Chief Minister that the AGP had supported mega dams while it was in power during the 1980s as a misleading statement. For, the Brahmaputra Board had during that period proposed multipurpose dams on the rivers of the NE region.
But now, the Brahmaputra Board has been sidelined and power companies have been entrusted with the job to set up mega dam hydel power projects to generate around 60,000 MW of power from the NE rivers for the benefit of the other regions of the country.
This is nothing but the product of the colonial approach of the Central Government towards the NE region and in this design Tarun Gogoi is playing the role of a subedar of the Central Government. This is very unfortunate, Bora said.
He reminded the State Government of the deluge created by the Ranganadi in June 2008. The river, after getting its system upset with the mega dam installed on it, inundated around 348 villages in a single night.
Faced with similar situations, people�s movements in many countries like the United
States of America, compelled the authorities to decommission many dams. Not willing to learn any lesson from the Ranganadi disaster, the Governments in the State and at the Centre are now trying to install a mega dam on the Subansiri river, which is a much bigger river.
If this river is dammed, it may get upset and cause havoc for the people both the districts of Dhemaji and Lakhimpur. Apprehensions are also there that the famous river island Majuli may also face the adverse impacts of the Subansiri dam, Bora said.
BJP: The State unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has also warned agitational programmes to resist mega dams in the NE region.
