GUWAHATI, Dec 1 � The anti-mega dam agitationists of the State today won a battle in the form of diverting the turbine parts-laden truck from the National Highway 52 to the Central Field in North Lakhimpur town. The truck was bound for Gerukamukh site of the under construction Lower Subansiri Hydroelectric Power Project (LSHEP).
In the journey of the turbine parts from Jamugurihat in Sonitpur district yesterday, the policemen accompanying the parts pounced upon the people, who tried to resist the progress of the truck, brutally. In the process, hundreds of agitating people, including about 100 All Assam Students� Union (AASU) members, sustained injuries.
According to AASU advisor Samujjal Bhattacharyya, about a hundred people and members of the students� body were injured in the police actions since yesterday and they had to undergo medical treatment. Dhruvajyoti Bora, vice-president of the Chayduar College Students� Union got his collar bone and a finger broken in the police action.
The police also resorted to blank fire to disperse the agitating people and to clear the NH-52 at Dholpur in Lakhimpur district last evening. At North Lakhimpur, the truck carrying turbine parts was resisted by the members of the AASU, Takam Mising Porin Kebang (TMPK), Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba-Chatra Parishad (AJYCP), other organisations and the local people. Thousands of people were on the NH-52 to resist the onward move of the truck, Bhattacharyya added.
The district administration of Lakhimpur had to hold a discussion with the members of the AASU, TMPK, AJYCP and other agitating organisations. And in the afternoon the truck was moved to the Central Field by breaking its boundary wall.
Now the agitators are mounting pressure on the authorities to unload the turbine parts there. The AASU and its 26 ally ethnic organisations would continue their agitation, Bhattacharyya said.
Meanwhile, the AASU has dared the Chief Minister to organise a discussion of the leading experts of the country and abroad with the experts of the State who had expressed serious fears over the safety of the LSHEP dam and the impacts of the project on the downstream areas. Unless that discussion is held and it results in a positive outcome, the construction of the LSHEP should be kept in abeyance, said the students� body.
AASU members today hoisted black flags in public places and took out torchlight processions all over the State in protest against the police action on the anti-mega dam agitationists.
The members of the AJYCP observed black day today by wearing black badges, hoisting black flags in public places and covering their faces with black clothes to register their protest against the police actions on the anti-mega dam agitationists.
Our North Lakhimpur correspondent adds: The situation was tense in Lakhimpur district since yesterday evening following police action against the anti-dam activists and the district authorities this morning deployed a huge contingent of armed security force with riot gear in North Lakhimpur.
The Deputy Commissioner of Lakhimpur Dr Anwaruddin Chawdhury and Superintendent of Police David Nythong were constantly trying to negotiate an end to the impasse.
