Arunachal: DHPDAAC’s public meeting concludes at Parbuk village
A memorandum to be submitted to the state govt.
PASIGHAT-( By Maksam Tayeng ) After conducting series of public meeting cum awareness programme among the people from various villages of downstream of Dibang river under Dambuk, Kangkong-Parbuk areas of Lower Dibang Valley district and under Lower Mebo (Monggu Banggo) of East Siang district, the Dibang Hydropower Project Downstream Area Affected Committee (DHPDAAC) conducted its final leg of its meeting at Parbuk village on Saturday.
Today 6th general meeting cum awareness programme was attended by retired government servants/officers, Gaon Burahs and PRI leaders like ZPC Lower Dibang Valley, ZPMs and others from all the villages right from Paglam, Banggo to Namsing, Seram, Borguli, Kiyit to Dambuk and Kangkong-Parbuk villages which are likely to be affected by floods in case of major catastrophe out of dam breaks in near future from the Dibang Multipurpose Hydropower Dam which is being build on Dibang river at the upstream.
The meeting was conducted under the Chairmanship of Gotem Tayeng, Chairman of DHPDAAC being coordinated by its General Secretary, Vijay Pertin and other office bearers of the committee who are spearheading the downstream people in demanding safety measures from the government and NHPC for the protection of downstream areas of the mega dam. Other environmental activists and researchers led by Bhanu Tatak also spoke on the flood and other mitigation part of the project by conducting a detailed research of the community’s adaptation to climate change etc under ‘understanding Dibang river’s flood basin, livelihoods, ecosystem and climate change’.
Almost all the speakers of the meeting spoke in favour of the dam project seeing the positive side of the hydropower dams as the project has already been cleared by the government of Arunachal Pradesh and the government of India by releasing the compensation amount of the land in the project sites. All the speakers showed confidence upon the DHPDAAC and urged the committee to approach the government of Arunachal Pradesh and Govt. of India without any compromise of personal monetary gains like previous anti-dam groups did for monetary gains.
Informing about the outcome of the meeting, DHPDAAC Chairman, Gotem Tayeng and General Secretary, Vijay Pertin said that the committee will compile a detail project reports with the help of experts for construction of guide bundh along the both river bank of Dibang river till Brahmaputra river to prevent yearly flood erosion along the riverbanks and to safeguard the downstream areas in case of any future natural and manmade calamities out of the project. “The report will be then submitted to both NHPC and the government through Dy. Commissioner, Roing, Dibang Valley district for speedy consideration of the project besides demanding 60% job reservation for local youths of the area”, added Tayeng and Pertin.
