Arunachal village chiefs step up opposition to mega dam

GUWAHATI

The chiefs of villages along River Siang in Arunachal Pradesh have stepped up their opposition to a proposed 12,500 MW hydropower project.

The chiefs of villages likely to be affected by the Siang Upper Multi-purpose Project (SUMP) in the Siang, East Siang, and Upper Siang districts said on Wednesday they would not allow a potentially dangerous mega dam to be built on their ancestral lands.

In an appeal to Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister Pema Khandu, they said the government was militarising the Siang belt to crackdown on people protesting the “illegal” pre-feasibility report for the SUMP in the name of “national security”.

They also said the commission-eyeing hydropower lobby had been using the China bogey to pursue a project that would be disastrous for the ecology of the region. They also trashed the argument that the 12,500 MW dam was necessary to counter the possible diversion of the Yarlung Tsangpo, the upper reaches of the Siang, which meets two other rivers to flow down as the Brahmaputra in Assam.

Reminding the government that Siang is largely dependent on tributaries such as Yamne, Simang, and Siyom rather than the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet, the village chiefs said pursuing the SUMP was against a Gauhati High Court order warranting strict adherence to the law.

Some villagers also burnt an effigy of Mr. Khandu ahead of his scheduled visit to Boleng, headquarters of the Siang district, for a political programme.