Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Crackdown on anti-mega dam protesters sparks violence in Assam by Sushanta Talukdar

Crackdown on anti-mega dam protesters sparks violence in Assam by Sushanta Talukdar

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Dec 29, 2011   modified Modified on Dec 29, 2011

A late-night crackdown by the police and paramilitary forces on anti-mega dam protesters in Lakhimpur district triggered raging protests at several places in Assam on Monday.

The police arrested more than 200 protesters, who since December 16 had been blocking vehicles transporting equipment and construction materials, through National Highway 52, for the NHPC's 2,000-MW Lower Subonsiri hydroelectric project at Gerukamukh in Arunachal Pradesh.

To protest the police action, five organisations, including the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad and the Takam Mising Porin Kebang, which have been spearheading the blockade, called a 48-hour bandh from Monday in Lakhimpur and Dhemaji districts.

Moreover, hundreds of people continued their blockade of the highway at several places in the two districts, burning tyres, throwing stones at vehicles and felling trees.

The police action came around 2.30 a.m. on Monday after the Lakhimpur district administration promulgated an order under Section 144 of the Cr.PC, prohibiting assembly of five or more persons and pillion-riding, and declaring unlawful the gatherings of anti-mega dam protesters near the Ranganadi bridge and Ghagar Tinali.

On Sunday, the five organisations had announced their decision to extend the blockade for five more days at the end of the first phase of their 10-day agitation. They also warned of an indefinite blockade if the Centre and the Assam government failed to invite them for talks in the next five days on their demand for halting the project.

The district administration alleged that the agitators, who started the blockade near the Ranganadi bridge targeting vehicles bound for the project site, took the law into their own hands. They stopped tankers transporting diesel and petrol for Lakhimpur and Dhemaji districts and several districts of Arunachal Pradesh. The agitators began checking the documents of vehicles, an act that the administration described as illegal. It apprehended a conflict between the agitators and the drivers and owners of vehicles.

The administration alleged that some agitators felled large trees near Padumoni to block vehicles on the highway. In the early hours of Monday, the agitators were asked to disperse but as they refused, they were taken into custody at the Ranganadi bridge and Ghagar Tinali. The entire operation, it said, was peaceful and there was no firing or lathi charge.

However, the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) has condemned the arrests and demanded that the Assam government release the protesters immediately. Plans for big dams in the Brahmaputra Valley and across the Subasniri river should be scrapped, it said in a statement.

Expressing solidarity with the KMSS and student groups that have been opposing the construction of big dams in the highly seismic zone, the statement urged the State and Union governments to have a serious look at dam-building in light of the controversy over the Mullaperiyar dam, and the agitations against the big dams in Assam, the Vishungadh-Pipalkoti hydroelectric project in Uttarakhand, the Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh and various dams in the Narmada Valley. “Dams as a technological tool for development, irrigation and flood control have been exposed. It is high time that serious thought was given to decommissioning of the dams rather than building more big dams,” said the statement issued by Medha Patkar, Sandeep Pandey, Prafulla Samantara, Ramakrishna Raju, Vimal Bhai, Rajendra Ravi, Anand Mazgaonkar and Madhuresh Kumar.

Opposition parties in the State staged a sit-in in the city to protest the crackdown on the protesters who, they said, were peaceful and democratic.

The five organisations, along with other outfits, have been organising agitations for halting the Lower Subonsiri hydroelectric project and all mega-dam projects since December 1.

Hundreds of people burn tyres, throw stones at vehicles and fell trees along NH 52

Authorities charge protesters with stopping fuel tankers, checking vehicle documents


The Hindu, 27 December, 2011, http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article2750495.ece


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close