By The Times of India
NHPC’s 2000-MW Lower Subansiri hydro-electric project is likely to face more resistance in the coming days, with hundreds of anti-dam activists resolving on Thursday to launch a total blockade of all construction materials for the project. The agitators took the pledge in the presence of Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar.
The firebrand activist, addressing an anti-dam public rally in Lakhimpur district’s Chawldhuwaghat, said the “relentless” people’s movement against the Lower Subansiri project has become an all-India struggle against large dams.
“I salute your persistent agitation against large dams to save the Subansiri river. It is not only your movement. It is an all-India movement. The people of the Narmada and Brahmaputra valleys are united in the struggle against large dams,” Patkar said, amid thunderous clapping from the crowd.
During the rally, Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) general secretary Akhil Gogoi announced that the next phase of the stir would start from March 10, and would entail a total blockade of all construction materials for the project.
Akhil told the crowd, “The next phase of the movement will be a tougher one. Be ready to face the bullets. We are going to stop the movement of construction material by any means. We will prolong our movement till the rainy season. Once the rainy season starts, work at the project site will stop automatically.”
The crowd, also comprising a sizeable number of women, cheered in chorus as the KMSS leader announced the next phase of the movement. Later, the anti-dam supporters took a pledge at the Subansiri river that they would not allow the construction of the hydro-electric project.
Work at the project site virtually came to a halt following a series of agitations by anti-dam groups since December 16 last year. The new phase of agitation indicates that the builder of the Lower Subansiri project, NHPC, will face even stiffer opposition in executing the work of the project. The project’s date of commissioning has already been postponed to 2014.
Senior citizens and the intelligentsia have also called a meeting on the issue of large dams and their impact on Assam here on February 26 and 27.
From The Times of India: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/Protesters-vow-to-stop-dam-at-all-costs/articleshow/12012761.cms
The World Bank estimates that forcible “development-induced displacement and resettlement” now affects 10 million people per year. According to the World Bank an estimated 33 million people have been displaced by development projects such as dams, urban development and irrigation canals in India alone.
India is well ahead in this respect. A country with as many as over 3600 large dams within its belt can never be the exceptional case regarding displacement. The number of development induced displacement is higher than the conflict induced displacement in India. According to Bogumil Terminski an estimated more than 10 million people have been displaced by development each year.
Athough the exact number of development-induced displaced people (DIDPs) is difficult to know, estimates are that in the last decade 90–100 million people have been displaced by urban, irrigation and power projects alone, with the number of people displaced by urban development becoming greater than those displaced by large infrastructure projects (such as dams). DIDPs outnumber refugees, with the added problem that their plight is often more concealed.
This is what experts have termed “development-induced displacement.” According to Michael Cernea, a World Bank analyst, the causes of development-induced displacement include water supply (dams, reservoirs, irrigation); urban infrastructure; transportation (roads, highways, canals); energy (mining, power plants, oil exploration and extraction, pipelines); agricultural expansion; parks and forest reserves; and population redistribution schemes.