Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, Nov 20: Claiming that the villagers whose lands are actually affected by the NHPC’s 2000 mw Lower Subansiri hydroelectric project (HEP) have been deprived of compensation, the land affected people of Dibe circle in Lower Siang district have urged the state government to take urgent steps to carry out reassessment in the villages to ensure proper disbursement of compensation.
Addressing journalists during a press conference here this afternoon, Tenken Nada, one of the representatives of the affected villagers of Dibe (which is located on the left bank of the Singen river in Lower Siang district), alleged that in 2009, only a section of the land affected people of the village received compensation against 620 hectares of land which would reportedly be affected by the project, while most of the genuinely affected villagers were unjustly deprived.
Informing that of the total 12,025 hectares of land in Dibe village, 620 hectares would be submerged once the project is commissioned, Nada appealed to the state government to carry out reassessment of the entire project affected village land, so that no genuinely affected villager is deprived of compensation.
“Despite our repeated appeals to the NHPC and the district administration, no steps have been initiated by either the authorities or the state government till now. As per the assessment report submitted by the EAC-cum-nodal officer through the deputy commissioner Aalo to the NHPC in 2009, Rs 16 crore was released as compensation against 620 hectares of land, but some parts of our land are yet to be compensated for due to the delay in the assessment report by the EAC,” Nada said, and demanded that no further payment of compensation be made to any villager, clan or individual until reassessment is done through a proper technical survey.
The land affected people had in 2013 approached the Gauhati High Court, urging it to look into the issue of payment of compensation to the villagers of Dibe as per the assessment of loss report prepared by the NHPC’s EAC-cum-nodal officer.
The affected people also appealed to the state government to carry out proper survey of the land and forests falling under the project before releasing the compensation of Rs 500 crore and 28 lakhs.
