SHILLONG: Residents of Thieddieng village have opposed the 85-mw stage II of Mawphu Hydro Electric Project and accused the acting headman of the village and Syiem of Hima Sohra of bulldozing people’s opinion on this.
Speaking to media persons here on Thursday, a local, Joborstarsing Sohtun, claimed that around 93 hectares of the land belonging to the villagers of Thieddieng will be affected if the project is implemented.
“If we allow NEEPCO to take over our lands for the implementation of the project then the farming land on which the people are dependent upon for their livelihood will disappear,” he said.
Maintaining that villagers were unaware that their agricultural land was included in the project, Sohtun said the villagers came to know about it only when NEEPCO started survey work.
“In a recent public hearing on May 16 earlier this year the villagers had opposed the project since the Syiem of Hima Sohra had not taken into confidence the opinion of the people over the project ,” he said while claiming 74 households will be affected and displaced once the project is implemented.
In the public meeting held on May 16, NEEPCO had offered Rs 25,000 towards the displaced households with an addition of Rs 2,000 every month for the next 20 years and one family member from each affected household would get employment, he said while responding to a query on the compensation offered by NEEPCO.
“Even if we get compensation but what will people do with Rs 2,000 per month at this present day,” he told reporters. The matter earlier was also taken up with former KHADC CEM Ardent Basaiawmoit.
