PPA questions Centre on 'hasty' clearance

our correspondent

Itagar, June 13: The Peoples Party of Aruchal (PPA) has questioned Union Water Resource Minister Uma Bharti’s undue haste in getting the controversial middle Siang mega dam project cleared in Aruchal without taking the prime stakeholders into confidence. The party alleged that decision reflects poorly of the Centre’s assertion that it was in favour of facilitating greater federalism in the country. It has once again proved beyond doubt that the Centre’s hydropower policy towards this strategically located state is more of extractive and exploitative in ture than welfare oriented, the PPA alleged. “All the stakeholders whose rights might be affected should have been included in the decision making process,” retorted party’s president Kahfa Bengia. “Why should Aruchal be an innocent victim in this undeclared race to capture the hydropower potential of the Brahmaputra river basin between India and Chi who are competing to establish first user right of the river? Unfortutely the Centre’s undue haste in getting the project cleared in a clandestine manner undermining the legitimate concerns of the people, particularly the downstream inhabitants within the state and in Assam have sparked great controversies over the subject of dam building in the region yet again,” Kahfa rued. PPA CWC Chairman Kamen Ringu remarked, “The party is not against building of dams in this hydropower rich state but the decision to do so should primarily rest with the stakeholders in the region and these decisions should not be imposed on us by the people living in Delhi. It is also not understood why the Centre does not go for an impartial comprehensive cumulative impact assessment by experts on all the 130- odd proposed Dams in Aruchal Pradesh.” Very recently the tiol Green Tribul had pulled up the Centre and called for a thorough study on the cumulative environment impact accruing from such large scale intervention on an environmentally and geologically fragile region.