Damning charge returns to haunt Congress in Assam

As Assam braces for the April 4-11 assembly polls, anti-dam protests are getting louder in the state. Activists and organisations opposed to mega dams have vowed to wipe out the ruling Congress, especially on the north bank of the Brahmaputra.

The party held nine of the 18 seats on the bank in the outgoing assembly. But protests and subsequent mobilisation of public opinion against dams, particularly Lower Subansiri Hydroelectric Project (LSHP) of the central government, has left Congress in a spot of bother.

“How can the Tarun Gogoi government endorse the [LSH] project  when the initial work itself has left most paddy fields in North Lakhimpur district under downstream sand, rendering these uncultivable?” Johan Doley, president of an anti-dam tribal organisation, said.

He said people were worried the downstream impact would ravage civilisation on the north bank.

LSHP, which aims to generate 2010 MW of power, was approved allegedly without a proper study of geotectonic and seismic conditions. The North-East is the sixth-most earthquake-prone zone in the world.

Not just LSHP, the neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh government has also signed MoUs for 168 projects to generate 45,000 MW of power.

“There are a number of tribes and communities living upstream and downstream the Subansiri [river], but sadly they haven’t been taken into confidence,” Doley said.

Making matters worse for Congress, an expert committee constituted by the Assam government, drawing experts from IIT-Guwahati, Dibrugarh University and Gauhati University, has said that a dam of this (LSHP’s) magnitude should not be constructed in a tectonically-unstable area such as north bank.

“The Gogoi government wants the project at any cost for it has taken a lot of money from the power lobbies,” Doley said, adding, “The lobbies are giving money to Congress because they know the project can come up only if the party retains power.”
Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), which has been vocal on the issue, predicted fall of Congress on the north bank.

“Given the protests, Congress will surely sink in most of the assembly segments on the north bank,” Padmeswar Bora, a local KMSS leader, said. “However, if that doesn’t happen, the people [on the north bank] will perish,” he said.

A leader of the influential All Assam Students Union said: “We are not averse to dams. But we don’t want dams at the cost of a civilisation.”