Itanagar: Normal life ground to a halt across Arunachal Pradesh’s Siang valley on Monday as a 36-hour total shutdown (bandh) began to protest the proposed 11,200-MW Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP). To control escalating unrest, authorities clamped down on communication, suspending mobile internet services across the Upper Siang district since Sunday night.
The shutdown, which commenced at 5:00 AM, heavily disrupted normal life across Upper Siang, Siang, and East Siang districts. Schools, financial institutions, markets, and private businesses remained completely shuttered, while public transport stayed off the highways.
Demonstrators burnt tyres on vital intersections to enforce blockades. Upper Siang Deputy Commissioner Ashok Tajo reported that the strike heavily affected district strongholds like Yingkiong and Geku.
The strike was jointly engineered by the Siang Indigenous Farmers Forum (SIFF) and the SUMP Affected Area Youth Association (SAAYA). Protesters are demanding the unconditional release of anti-dam activists arrested under the stringent Arunachal Pradesh Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act during violent clashes in October. They are also demanding an immediate end to all technical pre-feasibility surveys and the withdrawal of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) from the region.
Condemning the state’s coercive deployment, SAAYA stated, “This is a democratic struggle to protect our ancestral land, the Siang River, and our future generations. We will not allow a project that threatens the very identity of the Adi community”.
Meanwhile, the Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) added political weight to the agitation on Monday, formally demanding that the project be scrapped. "No development should be executed at the cost of indigenous communities' land and livelihood," the APCC noted, urging the state to restore peace via dialogue.
Despite New Delhi framing the NHPC-led mega-dam as a strategic water buffer against China’s upstream Yarlung Tsangpo projects, indigenous resistance continues to intensify over fears that the reservoir will submerge 27 ancestral villages.