Staff Reporter
SEPPA, Feb 11: The 3 Mega Watt Pacha Micro Hydel in Seppa, East Kameng district is a relic in true sense and cannot be compared to some other prized possession.  
A whopping amount of Rs 6449.46 lakhs have been pumped into this mere 3 Mega Watt for the last 16 years, yet the service of this project is yet to see the light.
In the last 16 years, many projects bigger than this were taken up and commissioned in many different pockets of the country, the Pacha Micro Hydel Project is awaiting some honourable to do the pious job of red-ribbon cutting ceremony.
“The much hyped Micro hydel project was sanctioned in the year 1994 for the estimate cost of Rs 471.88 lakhs including 3% contingencies and excluding the revised estimate cost of Rs 2988.79 lakhs where NABARD’s component was Rs 2237.44 lakhs and Rs 751.35 lakhs State’s share. Even with the total cost of Rs 6449.46 lakhs, it cannot supply electricity for a single bulb” rued Arunachal Pradesh Youth Congress Secretary Loga Tallang, who is also local of Seppa Township.  
When the APCC secretary enquired about the delaying in the Commission of the said Hydel Project, the authority assured that it would be commissioned “very soon” and is in “final stage”.
However, Tallang complained that every year during meetings, the authority reiterates one line assurance: “We will commission it by next March”
“Many March have come and gone by; the project is always in final stage or very soon to be commissioned. Pretext after pretext… but there is no end to darkness of Seppa town’, he added.
People here have patiently waited for two decades for Pacha Micro Hydel Project to complete. There was no dearth of funds with more than require amounts pumping into it. What was lack was the concerted efforts from every quarter be it local MLA, pressure groups and above all the concern authority.
Many self-claimed intellectuals of the area believe that the project envisaged more than 16 years ago will not suffice electricity needs of the people there as during such a long gap, the population of the area have also gone into leaps and bounds.
During the last election, there was a talk of Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu inaugurating the project. What happened? Nobody seems to know.  
In the intervening time, till the much cursed and hailed Project do gets commissioned within this century, every night is a candle lite dinner for the denizens of Seppa that too over a soft Radio(battery operated)  music from All India Radio Station.