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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | CM invites anti-dam activists

CM invites anti-dam activists

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published Published on Dec 2, 2011   modified Modified on Dec 2, 2011
-The Telegraph
 
Dispur today said it was open to hold discussions with the anti-dam activists, a section of whom began a fresh agitation in Lakhimpur town this morning when a vehicle carrying machinery for the Subansiri hydel power project tried to proceed towards the project site in Dhemaji.

Protests began when a truck carrying a “big machine” for the project left Thelamara in Sonitpur district yesterday morning and reached Lakhimpur town around 7.30 this morning.

Activists stopped the vehicle at several places at Dhalpur in Lakhimpur district yesterday, forcing the administration to cane them and fire blank rounds to disperse them.

The vehicle did not proceed and remained parked at the government higher secondary school field.

“I will only be too happy to discuss the issue but nobody has approached me so far. I will ask my power minister (Pradyut Bordoloi) to take steps accordingly. We are not for confrontation. We will talk as far as possible but if we see that the other party is not interested in a resolution we will not waste time in holding talks,” Gogoi said.

The chief minister, however, said the truck will “move forward not backward”, an indication that he will not bow.

The AASU, whose members were part of the protests, reacted this evening by demanding that construction of the dam be halted.

“We want the state government to invite foreign experts and hold discussion with our own experts who have warned of the disastrous downstream impact. Till then we want a halt to the construction and to the atrocities on our members. AASU along with 26 organisations will intensify its democratic movement and Dispur will be held responsible if anything goes wrong if our warning is not heeded,” AASU adviser Samujjal Bhattacharyya said in Guwahati following the day-long protest in all districts against yesterday’s lathicharge and police firing.

While AASU’s Tezpur unit took out a torchlight procession this evening in protest against the , the organisation’s general secretary Tapan Gogoi reached Lakhimpur this evening to guide the protest which rattled the administration.

Lakhimpur deputy commissioner Anwaruddin Choudhury, himself an acclaimed environmentalist, had to use all his persuasive powers to defuse the crisis by engaging with the charged protestors who wanted a direct discussion with the chief minister. Security personnel had to fire rubber bullets after protesters hurled stones at them till late this evening.

Nobody was, however, injured.

Choudhury told The Telegraph that the situation was under control and that he would convey all the demands of the protestors to appropriate authority.

“Given the overall public mood and law and order situation, we have decided to park the truck carrying machine that is used to discharge water from the powerhouse to the river. Things are under control,” Choudhury said.

Till late this evening, the protestors, including KMSS’s Akhil Gogoi, have not submitted a formal representation.

AASU general secretary Tapan Gogoi told the Telegraph from Lakhimpur that they were ready for talks with the chief minister.

“We had written to the chief minister and the power minister to resolve the issue through discussion but there was no response from their end. Like the government we are pro-development but not development at cost of those living downstream,” he said.


The Telegraph, 2 December, 2011, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1111202/jsp/northeast/story_14826068.jsp


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