Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 8 Mar: Complying with the court order issued on 29 March, graffiti artist Neelim Mahanta on Friday repainted the mural on the state civil secretariat wall to its original form.
Mahanta had removed the words ‘No More Dams’ from the wall on 2 April.
Advocate Ebo Milli, who accompanied Mahanta, said, “We wanted to convey the message and its being done and many likeminded people are in support of us. If building dams is a reality, opposing it is also a reality.”
“This (the defacing of the mural) is just a small issue, but the reality is that many MoUs (for dams) have been signed in the past,” Milli said.
He said that environmental activists in both Arunachal Pradesh and Assam are opposed to construction of big dams.
“Earlier, a public interest litigation in this regard was filed, but later on it was politicised. It is not that people were silent or were not opposing it; it is just that it was not informed in larger platforms,” Milli said.
“We don’t need a high megawatt consisting of 3,000 to 5,000 for electricity, but the least required is of 100 mw. We should see the ratio between risk and benefit,” he added.
Artist Bhanu Tatak, who came to show solidarity with Mahanta, stated that “we are not only opposing the dams in Dibang valley; we are opposing about 140 dams that are being constructed in the state.”
She questioned if development would come only through dams. “Will roads and schools not come up without dams? Only a little amount from the corporate responsibility fund is being disbursed for development through such big projects, which is anyhow being done by the government,” she said.
Tatak added that “revenue can be produced through other forms, and we can produce energy in other sustainable ways, as well.”
As per the data available, eight river basins – Tawang, Kameng, Subansiri, Dikrong, Siang, Dibang, Lohit and Tirap – can generate a total of 57,000 mw electricity.
Meanwhile, representatives of 22 anti-dam groups distributed their joint statement to the people on the highway near the secretariat.
They also appealed to the government to replace the painting of the dam on the wall with “something else that reflects the cultural heritage of the state.”
Environmental activists and RGU scholars Oyin Komboh and Prem Taba also showed up in support.
