Act charges committee on hydel projects with failure

Major Events Vol. 3 Issue No. 26

May 1-15, 2007

Act charges committee on hydel projects with failure

The Affected Citizens of Teesta (ACT), an organisation of the residents of North Sikkim to be affected by the mega hydel power projects coming up in the area, has accused the committee looking after the implementation of these projects of playing into the hands of private power developers and ignoring the interests of the locals.

In a letter shot off to the coordination committee chairman Hissey Lachungpa on Monday, the chief coordinator of ACT Tseten Lepcha alleged that the committee was “intentionally conniving” with the vested interests and the private power developers at the cost of the locals.

Charging the Teesta Urja Limited which is implementing the Teesta-III hydroelectric project in the North district with carrying out the land aquisition process in the area in a forcible manner, Lepcha alleged that the coordination commitee had remained passive and failed to address the problems of the locals.

The letter also alleged that the project was posing a serious threat to the fragile environment and rich bio-diversity of the area. It urged the committee to immediately cancel land acquistion notices and stop all efforts to forcibly acquire the precious land of the people by the Teesta Urja Limited.

However, the management of the Teesta Urja Ltd rubbished the allegations levelled against it by the ACT and said everything was being done as per the rules. “As far as land aquisition is concerned we have the concurrence of the panchayats and the individual landowners in writing. So, the question of we grabbing land forcibly doesn’t arise,” Teesta-III hydel project general manager JVSD Prasada Raju said. – PTI

Asked about the project posing a threat to environment of the area the GM said the project already has environmental clearance from the State and Central Governments which is done after a lengthy scientific process.

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