Guwahati: The pros-cribed United Liberation Front of Asom (Indepen-dent) or (ULFA-I) on Friday warned that would resort to armed protest in case the government of India and the National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) try to construct the 2000 MW Lower Subansiri Hydro-electric Dam project forcefully ignoring the mass protests in the state against the construction of the dam under the prevailing conditions.
In a statement e-mailed to the media, self-styled commander-in-chief of the ULFA-I, Paresh Barua , said the 2000 MW Lower Subansiri dam project as well as another 186 hydro-electric projects in Arunachal Pradesh that were being constructed would not serve the interests of people of Assam.
The ULFA leader, however, said that since the outfit also wanted development of Assam, it would extend support to construction of the 2000 MW mega dam only if it was done as per the design prepared by the experts’ panel from Assam assuring protection of lives and property of people in downstream areas in Assam.
The ULFA put forward following condition for implementation of the dam project that has been stalemated because of mass protests against it :
• The NHPC must either shift the site of the mega dam from the present location where the base rock is sedimentary in nature and would not be withstand the pressure of such a huge dam or convert it to a smaller project with lower generation capacity.
• Only 25 MW of free power will be provided to Assam from the 2000 MW project which is not acceptable as the rest 1975 MW would be exported outside to rest f the country. The project must ensure
that every household in Assam gets electric power and power generated should be utilized to set up industries in Assam. Such industries may be set up by ‘Indian industrialists’ but with scope for employment of local youth.
• The dam should be construed with such technology that it can sustain mega earthquake with intensity over 8 in the Richter scale. All the mega dams constructed in China can withstand impact of earthquake of intensity measured at 8.8 in the Richter scale.
• Government of India must give written assurance to provide adequate compensation and rehabilitate people who may be affected by the water released from the mega dam. People of certain areas were severely affected when Bhutan released water from its 60 MW Kurishu dam in 2004 and 2007. So, the fate of the people of Assam is feared to be measurable in case water is released from 186 dams in Arunachal Pradesh and from Lower Subansiri project.
• Government of India must sign an agreement with Assam for providing compensation to affected in case the water released from 600 MW under construction Kholo-ngchu dam project in Bhutan which was inaugu-rated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 14 this year, causes misery to people and also facilitate a scientific downstream imp-act study in Assam because of the dam in Bhutan.
The ULFA-I called upon the Government of India to accept the arguments put forwarded by the anti-mega dam organizations in the state and construct the dam only be keeping greater interests of the people of Assam