By Kalyan Barooah
A perturbed Chief Minister is trying to mount pressure on the Central leadership to review its stand on the big dam issue that threatens to spiral out of control and become a major political issue ahead of the Assembly polls. Gogoi on Wednesday met Union Power Minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde and Union Minister for Water Resources (MoWR), Paban Kumar Bansal and plans to meet Union Finance Minister and UPA’s trouble-shooter, Pranab Mukherjee.
Gogoi told both Shinde and Bansal that the Centre should at the earliest set up the multi-disciplinary committee to examine the issue in a holistic and comprehensive manner and the expert panel should be given suitable opportunity to present its findings before finalisation of view.
“The Centre has a different view on big dam though. But despite that I have stressed on the need to appoint an expert panel to study the issue and address the concern raised in the report by the expert panel,” the Chief Minister told this newspaper after meeting Bansal at his Parliament House Office.
Gogoi said he raised the same issue with both the Union Power Minister and Bansal, opining that the Central Ministries have a different take on the big dam but the need of the hour is to dispel the doubts raised by the Opposition. The only way to do it is to appoint a panel of experts to study the downstream impact in Assam because of the proposed big dams in Arunachal Pradesh, he added.
The Chief Minister revealed that the Central officials pointed out that the dam projects have undergone thorough studies and one of the country’s most prominent institutes Roorkee Institute of Technology was involved with the Projects.
“I have told them that the issue is not that but what is important is to ally the apprehensions raised by the panel of experts and those agitating against the projects,” he said.
The Chief Minister is addressing a press conference here on Thursday, afternoon.
Meanwhile, the Union MoWR talking to this newspaper said that the issue has two dimensions. In Arunachal Pradesh and Assam there are divergent views on the construction of big dams.
“The efforts should be now to take along the people of both the States, while addressing the concern raised in Assam,” he said.
Bansal said that Union Environment and Forest Minister, Jairam Ramesh has given his views on the subject at the meeting of the Group of Experts that is headed by Union Power Minister and him, besides others.
Jairam Ramesh had earlier sent a note to the Prime Minister calling for a moratorium on sanction of future projects and downstream and environment impact studies of the projects already cleared.
Bansal, however, observed that it was equally important to consider the fact that the country needs power and the benefits that flow from construction of such projects. The only concern is that it should not create problems for Assam, he said.
The Chief Minister has met me and conveyed the issues raised by the agitators and the views of the expert panel that studied the Subansiri Project, he added.
This is a sensitive issue and needs careful handling, he said.
Meanwhile, an official release issued said that Gogoi has conveyed that construction of Lower Subansiri Hydro Electric Power Project in upper reaches of Brahmaputra in Arunachal Pradesh has recently given rise to widespread public anxiety and resentment in Assam about its vulnerability and downstream effects.
Apprehensions are rife that such projects in the neighbouring State would cause floods and have adverse impact on erosion, bio-diversity and ecology of the region. The past experiences of flash floods and damages in downstream Assam due to sudden and unregulated release of water from Kopili and Ranganadi Dams have heightened concerns.
In this regard, an expert group with members from IIT, Guwahati, Gauhati University and Dibrugarh University have expressed concern regarding the location of the Dam in a highly seismic zone and stated that the construction of such dams could pose a serious threat to downstream areas.
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