Citizens’ body to protest in Delhi against hydel project
Posted by barunroy on May 1, 2008
GANGTOK, April 30: Members of Affected Citizens of Teesta (ACT), an apolitical body campaigning against the hydel project at Dzongu in North Sikkim district, has taken their campaign to New Delhi to draw the country’s attention to the plight of the affected people.
The ACT has sent a six-member delegation to New Delhi to join a three-day mahadharna being organised by anti-dam activist Ms Medha Patkar’s National Alliance for People’s Movement (NAPM) from 28-30 April.
The mahadharna is being organised to highlight the adverse effects of dams and hydel power projects across the country including those in Sikkim. ACT has been agitating against Dzongu Hydel Project since 20 June, 2007.
Patkar had promised to articulate ACT’s demands at the national level and invited the protesters to New Delhi to join the NAPM’s dharna and campaign on the environmental issues.
She had expressed “pain” and “anguish” at the struggle of the indigenous Lepcha people to protect “holy” land and natural resouces in Teesta valley. Sikkim chief minister Mr Pawan Kumar Chamling was charged with ignoring the rightful claims of the local people by deciding to go ahead with the power project during her visit. Ms Patkar, who spearheaded Narmada Bachao Andolan, had questioned the wisdom of the state government to construct 26 hydel projects in the Teesta valley despite the mountainous region being a earthquake-prone zone. [The Statesman]
