GUWAHATI: Union minister of State for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), General (retired) VK Singh on Saturday said that availability of power was an absolute pre-requisite to put the Northeastern states on the fast track of development.
Addressing the media here, the Minister said the BJP government in the Centre was exploring all possibilities to harness the enormous hydro-power resources in the region and would try to make people understand the necessity for having dam projects in the area.
He said, “Lower Subansiri Hydro-power project is lying unimplemented because of resistance from various organisations. I have studied the project. The project is good for Assam. There is a safety part and a benefit part. Now, the people of Assam have to be convinced about the benefits and safety measures of the project. There are personal interests involved in the resistance movements against the project.”
“The people of Assam have to be convinced that there is great potential exists and we are depriving ourselves if we don’t exploit it. Assam will get larger chunk of the 15 % free power to be supplied from the project once implemented,” General Singh said.
He said most of the hydel projects in the regions were run off the stream projects so that the water comes back to the river.
“North East has the highest potential of hydro power. It costs least. The region can reap the benefit by selling power to the rest of India and also to neighbouring countries,” he said. If the inter-dependence between the neighbouring countries increase, he said, then there would be no enmity and the relationship with Bangladesh and Myanmar would improve.
Singh’s comments on the Subansiri project comes within days of Power Minister Piyush Goyal assuring the people that no construction would be undertaken till the matter was sorted out. The project was located on the Lower Subansiri at Gerukamukh in Arunachal Pradesh, near North Lakhimpur on the border with Assam.
The cost of the project was initially estimated to be around Rs 6,285 crore and was scheduled to be commissioned in December 2012.
Construction has been stalled for over two years after protests by local people and groups fearing for safety and downstream impact.
When drawn to alleged misappropriation of central subsidy regarding implementation of various projects in the region, the DoNER minister said, “We are putting up monitoring mechanism to check this. Within a month’s time DoNER ministry will launch its website in order to connect to the people who can provide information to us directly on implementation status of various projects in different parts of the region. This is aimed at bringing transparency to the system.”
Regarding development of the potent tourism sector in the Northeastern region, the DoNER ministry said the initial focus was on promoting rural tourism and eco-tourism besides creating tourist facilities in the region. (With inputs from PTI)
