Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 21 Aug: The General Bogum Bokang Kebang (GBBK), a traditional decision-making assembly of the Adi community, was convened on 20 August in Geku in Upper Siang, under the aegis of the Siang Indigenous Farmers’ Forum (SIFF), which demanded the scrapping of the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP).
It also firmly rejected large dam projects and pre-feasibility reports (PFR) on the Siang river and sought the immediate withdrawal of Central Armed Police Forces deployed for the PFR study.
It stated that it will extend conditional support for small-scale hydroelectric projects on the tributaries of the Siang river, provided they are undertaken by authorised power developers in Siang and Upper Siang.
A declaration of the Siang river as ‘Ane Siang’, the goddess river of the Abu-Tani clan, reaffirming its sacred status, comparable to rivers like the Ganga and Yamuna in central India, based on traditional and cultural beliefs, was also made during the meeting.
The meeting saw the participation of public leaders, social organisations, and local communities from Siang, Upper Siang, Lower Dibang Valley, and East Siang districts, and was attended by several notable figures, including former chief minister Gegong Apang, representatives of the SIFF and the Adi Students’ Union, and gaon buras.
