[ Karyir Riba ]
ANINI, 14 Jan: The All Idu Mishmi Students’ Union (AIMSU) and the Dibang Valley District Students’ Union (DVDSU) have jointly declared an indefinite bandh from 17 January, in protest against the delay in disbursement of compensation to the project-affected families (PAF) of the NHPC Ltd’s Dibang Multipurpose Project (DMP).
The student bodies said that they are resorting to this action after repeated appeals to the district administration by the PAFs and other stakeholders did not yield any result.
“To end the injustice against the PAFs and the Idu-Mishmi community as a whole, we will start our protest on 17 January and will continue until the DA provides us with a date on which the poor beneficiaries will be given their rightful compensation,” the unions said.
The AIMSU and the DVDSU have also alleged that the “Dibang Valley DA, under the guidance of its deputy commissioner, is trying to create misunderstanding between the PAFs, despite the court’s order directing the authority to disburse the compensation indiscriminately, whether the person is before the court proceeding or not. This is not only contempt of court by the DA, but by trying to create a rift between the PAFs, it is participating in a criminal conspiracy by coercively obtaining signatures in the alleged affidavit from some of the petitioners by way of misguidance and ulterior interest, even at the cost of high court orders.”
Dibang Multipurpose Project Affected Area Committee (DMPAAC) chairman Nogoro Melo said, “After a meeting on the 5th of January, it has been brought to light that the DC Anini’s hands are tied and he has no control over anything. It is the land management commissioner and other subordinate officers who are interfering in the matter by not approving the letter as sought by the DC Anini for going ahead with the disbursement process, even at the cost of the high court’s order. Therefore, I have nothing else to say but point out that this total autocratic attitude meted out against the poor land-affected beneficiaries by Commissioner Prashant Sitaram Lokhande is something unthinkable.”
The DMPAAC is in full support of the bandh as a fight for the PAFs’ right to compensation, he said.
