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June29, 2005 - [India Thinkers Net] Posts 5 & 6 dt 29th June >> |
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[1] From: "River Basin Friends\(NE\)" <riverbasinfriends@yahoo.co.in> Date: Tue Jun 28, 2005 Subject: Arunachal Govt,CM and CS to avoid large Dams--Stir in Delhi Dear friends, This is happening first time in India when a State Govt .has started thinking this way. This is important for us to keep a close watch on this news,by the way the CM Mr. Apang has not and never liked dam before 20 years also in Along (West Siang).Let us keep ourself updated.Please give wider publicity to this news Thanks and regards ravi Apang decision stumps Delhi New Delhi, June 26: The Gegong Apang government??™s decision to avoid mega projects involving construction of huge reservoirs in Arunachal Pradesh has created quite a stir in Delhi. The ministries of power and water resources were informed of the decision a few days ago in a letter that said hydro power projects in the state would be designed on ???run-of-the-river basis???. ???As far as possible, storage projects involving high dams will be avoided,??? the Apang government??™s communiqu?© said. Concerned over the development, the water resources ministry has convened a meeting of the Brahmaputra Board in Guwahati tomorrow to discuss the issue. The ministry fears that the decision will jeopardise its efforts to check flood and erosion in the Brahmaputra Valley. All hydel power projects are either storage or run-of-the-river-schemes. The latter involves tunelling, which allows production of electricity but cannot be used to store excess water, thus increasing the chance of artificial floods. Sources said Assam would have to bear the brunt of the decision. According to the ministry, large reservoirs should be built in the upper reaches of the Brahmaputra for a long-term solution to floods in the valley. Explaining the government??™s decision, Arunachal Pradesh chief secretary Ashok Kumar, who is at present in New Delhi, said: ???Huge reservoirs create displacement problems and lead to submergence of large tracts of land. Consequently, the rehabilitation process becomes much more complicated.??? He said 27 projects planned by central public sector units such as the National Hydro Electric Power Corporation would have to be thoroughly reviewed. The 2000 MW Lower Subansiri project is already mired in controversy and the Assam government has requested the Centre to review it because there is no provision to control floods. The project could submerge approximately 4,000 hectares of land. On whether the state government would go ahead with the project, Kumar merely said that the issue was still pending in the Supreme Court. Sources said if the state government sticks to its stand, Delhi might have to rethink its strategy to transform Arunachal Pradesh into the ???powerhouse??? of the country. According to Central Electricity Authority estimates, the Northeast has the capacity to generate 38,000 MW of power, out of which Arunachal Pradesh alone can produce 32,000 MW. Only Kameng, which is a run-of-the-river project, is under construction and five other schemes are still awaiting clearance certificates. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050627/asp/northeast/story_4918067.asp ----------------------------------------- [2] Dear friends After Arunachal Govt's stand on Large Dams,let us look in to NHPC also.Pls take care and circulate it widely. ravi PressRelease June27,2005 Nathpa Jakhri shut-down and the bridge collapse in Teesta Stage III Hydel Project confirm serious concerns voiced by the social movements and civil society groups Stop all Hydel Projects under construction pending a comprehensive review of their feasibility and impacts The World Bank funded Nathpa Jakhri Hydel Project in Himachal Pradesh has been shut down for the second time in two years. The project authorities were forced to close down the hydel power station because of heavy silt deposition on the river Sutlej. This is being compounded by the rising water level due to an unexpected water discharge down the river Pareecchu in Tibet. Since the Nathpa Jakhri project was conceived, various civil society organisations and the local people have repeatedly voiced concerns on the above two aspects including sudden surge in water levels due to glacial burst in Tibet. The authorities, the World Bank and the Indian Government ignored these concerns and went ahead with the project trampling public opinion. The collapse of a Bailey bridge in the Teesta Low Dam Hydel Project under construction by NHPC in the Darjeeling Hills of West Bengal, reflects yet again the track record of NHPC ??“ strewn with similar accidents in their project sites - right from Parbati Hydel Project to Indira Sagar Hydel project recently. It also questions the rationale of the Government of India, its Power and Water Resources Ministries and the NHPC to go ahead with construction of dams over unpredictable, glacier-fed Himalayan rivers flowing through highly seismic and unstable rock formation zones, again ignoring repeated concerns voiced by the people. The details of the accident in Teesta III have been further shrouded in mystery with conflicting reports coming in from NHPC officials about the reason for the bridge collapse and the number of workers swept away by the surging Teesta waters. There is still no confirmed details of how many workers were drowned and how many missing. We, the representatives of various organisations and social movements, therefore, demand that the Prime Minister of India take serious notice of the Hydel Power Construction scenario in India and direct the Union Power Ministry and other implementing agencies to stop further construction of hydel power projects in India till a comprehensive review of the feasibility and impacts of these projects are undertaken. We also specifically request the Government of West Bengal and the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council to immediately order a proper enquiry to the accident in Teesta III site, find out the responsibility of NHPC officials, and make them accountable. The Labour Commissioner should also enquire into the details of the accident and find out how many workers have actually drowned, furnish a list of names of these workers, penalize the related construction firm and NHPC for dereliction of responsibility and ensure that proper compensation is being paid to their next of keens. Himanshu Thakkar, South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, New Delhi Roy Laifungbam, Centre for Organisation Research and Education, Manipur Ravindranath, Rural Volunteers Centre, Assam River Basin Friends , Assam G Haider, All Arunachal Pradesh Students??™ Union, Arunachal Pradesh Shripad Dharmadhikari, Manthan Adhyayan Kendra, Madhya Pradesh Soumitra Ghosh, NESPON, West Bengal Anthony Bamang, Arunachal Citizens??™ Rights, Arunachal Pradesh Vimalbhai, MATU, Uttaranchal Souparna Lahiri, Delhi Forum, New Delhi Joseph Hmar, Citizens Concerned for Dams and Development, Manipur Manoj Gogoi, People??™s Movement for Subansiri Valley, Assam R Shreedhar, Academy for Mountain Environics, Uttaranchal Kalpana Hazarika, Subansiri Sangrashak Naari Sanstha, Assam Deveshvar Pegu, Subansiri Valley Indigenous People??™s Forum, Assam Narmada Bachao Andolan, Mandleshwar, Madhya Pradesh Himanshu Upadhyay, Hydro Monitor India, Delhi Karple Riba, Dolok Bango Indigenous Peoples??™ Forum Shiva Sunuwar, Rashtriya Van Shramajeevi Manch, North Bengal Contact Address: F10/12 Malviya Nagar, New Delhi ??“ 110 017, Tel: 26680883, 26680914, 9818147740 Circulated by-- River Basin Friends AKAJAN District-Dhemaji.787059. Assam. India E mail.assamravi@... ---------------------------------------------------------- [3] From: MN sanil <mn_sanil2003@yahoo.co.in Date: Tue Jun 28, 2005 Subject: LEFT or RIGHT? CPI(M) suffers from ideological inertia in their populist rigmaroles with congress. They are not ready to resign from the current goverment. In Kerala, left is willing to start smart city under moderate condition. But, they are not ready to start struggles against the new forms of capitalism. They do not have any concern regardind the issues of dalits, tribals ,women, environment etc. ------------------------------------------------ [4] From: RED RPG <peoples_war@yahoo.co.uk> Date: Wed Jun 29, 2005 Subject: Signs of disintegration of Nepal??™s Royal Army - A World to Win News Service peoples_war http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/AWorldToWinNewsService/ ??? Signs of disintegration of Nepal??™s Royal Army Signs of disintegration of Nepal??™s Royal Army 27 June 2005. A World To Win News Service. Two notable events in Nepal over the last week seem to point to increasing desperation on the part of the Royal Army of Nepal. One is the kidnapping and killing of six family members of lower-level RNA personnel, very likely by the RNA itself. The other is an RNA tender for weapons and supplies, as they complain that they are running out of bullets and guns. Further, the parliamentary parties announced they would boycott the local elections the monarchy hopes to organise. Nepal??™s king has put all of the news media under the control of his armed forces, forbidding the popular local FM stations from broadcasting any news at all and sending censors to camp out in other media and print press editorial offices. In early June, the Nepali media reported that the Maoists had abducted six members of RNA men??™s families from their rented house about five hundred metres from a Royal Army training camp in Badimalika, in the Kailali district of western Nepal. The next day the media reported that the kidnapped people had been found killed in cold blood. They said that all the women had been raped and all of them plus a child were cut to pieces with a knife. The military-controlled media claimed that the Maoists had committed this crime as if that were a proven fact, even though there had been no investigation. Many people were stunned by this claim, especially in light of the recent incident in Chitawan district where Maoist guerrillas had blown up a bus full of civilians. Ultimately the media had to admit that the Maoists had nothing to do with the vicious killings of the RNA soldiers??™ families, but the RNA has yet to say who the real murderers are. Immediately after the bus tragedy in the Chitawan district, Chairman Prachanda of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) issued an apology and a serious self-criticism on behalf of the party, affirming that it was a violation of the party??™s policy of not harming civilians and suspending the People??™s Liberation Army and political leadership involved. The commander of the western division of the PLA, Comrade Pravakar, issued a statement on the murder of the family members. He said, ???First of all we would like to make it clear that the CPN(M) and the PLA had no role in that incident. That incident is merely an extreme example of [the Royal Army??™s] own international contradictions. We would never even think of such inhuman crimes, let alone actually commit them. Since we release the soldiers captured in the battlefield, we could not even think of killing their family members for no reason. ???Concerning the crime itself, the following reasons could be behind it. First, they may have been seeking to confuse the international communities and international public by committing such a crime and attributing it to the Maoists in a situation where they have been suffering all-around defeats in the battle with the PLA. Second, they may have been deliberately committing such crimes as a trick to control dissent in the lower ranks of the Royal Army soldiers. Third, while committing this crime, they may have feared that the facts would come out, and it may be that the reason they attributed the incident to the Maoists was to keep it from backfiring against the RNA.??? In another development, the Royal army has opened a tender for global suppliers of weapons to kill the Nepalese people. Many Nepali newspapers reported that the regime of the feudal despot Gyanendra Shah is looking for foreign arms suppliers. After the king??™s February coup against parliament, major suppliers of arms to Nepal, including India, the US and the UK, announced they were suspending shipments. Now the royal regime is nearly running out of guns and bullets. The RNA said it was looking for various kinds of ammunition, weapons, explosives, tanks, aircraft, regular helicopters and gunships, armoured personnel carriers, security communication equipment, mine detectors, bullet proof vests, parachutes, flack jackets and other equipment and spare parts, the press said. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has proposed a budget double the size of that of the current fiscal year, buttressing the RNA??™s call for more equipment, other press sources reported. The royal regime has announced that municipal elections are to be held across the country. The municipal governments became paralysed about three years ago amid mass resignations of officials, and the establishment of revolutionary political power in most of the countryside has made new elections impossible since then. The alliance of the seven parliamentary political parties declared they would boycott these elections, thus declining the king??™s appeal that they join him in fighting to save the monarchy. - end item- ----------------------------------------------------------- INDIA THINKERS NET quote "No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear." : Edmund Burke ------------------------------------------------------------ |
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| << June26, 2005 - [India Thinkers Net]Shivm,Yogi,Parvez & Regi's posts |
June29, 2005 - [India Thinkers Net] Posts 5 & 6 dt 29th June >> |
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