‘Stop Militarisation, Work Related to Dam-Building’: Rights Orgs Back Arunachal Villagers’ Demands
The Wire Staff
New Delhi: Expressing solidarity with the Siang Indigenous Farmers’ Forum (SIFF), which has been spearheading a people’s protest against the proposed Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP) – a nearly 12,000 megawatt dam to generate hydropower on the Siang River – in Arunachal Pradesh, 30 rights groups across the country called on the state government to stop activities related to the construction of the dam, and remove armed forces from the area with immediate effect.
Earlier this week, protests erupted in the village of Beging in Siang district in Arunachal Pradesh after the state government deployed the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) in the area to conduct a survey for the pre-feasibility report of the proposed dam.
Villagers also burnt a hanging bridge in the vicinity in an effort to prevent the CAPF from entering the area.
This is not the first time that protests have risen against the proposed mega dam, and the army deployed to implement it in the area. Local communities’ demands have been consistent and clear: they do not want a dam in the area for several reasons, prime among them being that the dam will submerge homes, villages and agricultural lands.
In a statement released on Friday (May 30), rights organisations across the country made three main demands of the state government: that it
- Immediately remove the CAPF personnel from the Siang, Upper Siang and East Siang districts where they have been currently deployed,
- Immediately withdraw equipment (a drilling machine) from the survey site in Beging, and
- Provide an assurance that the government will not conduct any further “forceful activity” related to the pre-feasibility report and that it only be done with “the free, prior, informed consent” of local communities.
These demands mirror those made by the SIFF – which is leading the protest against the mega dam in Beging – earlier this week.
Rights groups that are signatory to the statement include the National Alliance of People’s Movements, People for Aravallis (Haryana), Chalakudypuzha Samrakshana Samiti (Kerala), Affected Citizens of Teesta (Sikkim), the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation and the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (New Delhi).
Their statement urged the state government to immediately halt all SUMP-related activities, engage in dialogue with local communities, ensure a “transparent and participatory environmental and social review process of the Siang basin”, restore indigenous land rights and implement the Forest Rights Act (2006) in Arunachal Pradesh to “strengthen traditional community forest governance systems”.
It also urged the government to explore “ecologically responsible alternatives” to mega-hydropower projects such as distributed mini hydel projects to meet local electricity requirements.
“We also urge the Government of India to explore an equitable water-sharing agreement with China, rather than both countries competitively pursuing mega-hydro projects,” the statement said.
The statement also demanded that the government drop all charges against lawyer and activist Ebo Mili and other protestors.
Earlier this week, the state government had filed charges against Mili for allegedly spearheading the protests at Beging.
The proposed 11,500 MW SUMP is to be implemented by the National Hydro-electric Power Corporation in Arunachal Pradesh. Both the state and Union governments are pushing forward the dam as a response to China constructing a mega dam (66 gigawatts) on the Siang in China, where it is called the Yarlung Tsangpo; the Indian governments have claimed that the dam will regulate water flow in the Siang and mitigate flood risks.
“But our past experience from Kerala in 2018, Uttarakhand in multiple years, and Sikkim in 2023 has shown that hydropower-based big dams have caused bigger floods, rather than mitigate flood risks,” the statement released on Friday by the 30 rights organisations said.
Hydropower projects in Arunachal Pradesh including the SUMP “lack transparency, as key information such as environmental impact assessments and social impact analysis has not been disclosed to local communities in an accessible manner”, the statement added, saying that the demands of community representatives “have been ignored or dismissed by the government”.
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