[ Prafulla Kaman ]
GOGAMUKH, 21 Sep: The Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP), backed by more than 20 other Assam-based organizations, on Tuesday launched an indefinite blockade here in Assam’s Dhemaji district to protest ferrying of construction materials by NHPC to its Subansiri Lower Hydroelectric Power Project site in Gerukamukh.
Several hundred protesters from Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Majuli and other Upper Assam districts blocked truck(s) carrying construction materials and equipment to the NHPC site at Gogamukh on Tuesday.
AJYCP president Palash Changmai said the blockade against NHPC will continue until the construction works of the power project is put to a halt.
The AJYCP and its allies has been demanding a halt in construction activities of the 2000-MW hydel project near the Assam-Arunachal boundary until a clear disaster mitigation policy is formulated by the authority.
The leaders of Adivashi Students Union, Tai Ahom Students Union, Motok Students Union, Unique Woman Committee, Manav Adhikar Sangram Somoti and others flayed the governments at the Centre and in the states for ‘forceful’ implementation of the mega project, ignoring the concerns raised by the NGOs and the experts that the dam would have devastating impact in case of earthquake on the people living downstream from the dam.
On 13 September, Assam’s peasants’ organization Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti staged a protest at the project site demanding demolition of the dam.
The NHPC resumed work in the project in 2019 after eight years of halt due to protests.
