Correspondent
GOGAMUKH (Assam), Aug 23: The Dhemaji district committee of the Asom Jatiyotabadi Yuva Chatra Parishad (AJYCP), along with the Gogamukh Anchalik Committee on Thursday staged a protest here against the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) to demand closure of the 2000 mw Subansiri Lower Hydropower Project in Gerukhamukh.
The students blocked National Highway-15 at Gogamukh Chariali for an hour and burnt the effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, and NHPC, and raised slogans demanding a halt on construction work for the Subansiri Lower projects and other mega dam projects in Arunachal’s rivers.
The AJYCP leaders alleged that the state government during their tripartite talk two years back had assured the protesting organization to stop the construction work for the Subansiri Lower projects until experts have assessed the probable downstream impact and formulated an effective mitigation policy.
“But the NHPC authority, owing to the go-ahead gesture of the central and state governments, is continuing construction, concealing the facts from the people,” they said.
The student leaders cautioned the government not to play a cat-and-mouse game with the sentiments of the people of Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Majuli and Jorhat districts of Assam, and demanded immediate scrapping of the mega dam projects in Arunachal’s rivers.
Referring to the flood disaster in Kerala, the protesters alleged that the water released by the mega dam constructed in Arunachals’ rivers would create a deluge in downstream Assam and cause ecological catastrophe in Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Majuli and Jorhat districts.
Earlier too, the AJYCP with the support of various community organizations had staged a protest against the Subansiri Lower project, which it said was ignored by the authorities in the pretext of talking with the protesting organization.
