People demand equity share on power state projects in Arunachal

Itanagar, May 4 (UNI) The people of Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh have demanded that government should provide minimum 25 per cent equity shares of the hydro-electric projects to local people.

The demand was made in a memorandum submitted to chief minister Dorjee Khandu.

The power projects over rivers Tawang (1500mw) and Nyamjang(300mw) would be executed by the National Hydro Electric Power Corporation (NHPC) and M/s Bilbara Energy Limited respectively.

''In Arunachal Pradesh, the legal right of ownership of natural resources like water, forest and land rests with either the community or individuals.

However, neither the community nor the elected representatives were taken into confidence while signing MoUs with these power developers,'' alleged Tawang constituency MLA T G Rinpoche.

He told a news conference today the people of the area would not allow any power companies to earn at the cost of local people, who were solely depending on the natural resources for their livelihood.

''We don't need any temporary settlement but want a long-term solution,'' he said, adding, ''We are demanding a middle path so that the projects go ahead without any confrontation and the affected people get their due compensation.'' He said if the local people were made shareholders in the projects, they would get an opportunity to associate with the projects, besides a sense of partnership.

''We cannot simply agree on the 12 per cent free power offered by the companies, when they are going to earn crores utilising our resources,'' he added.

He further informed that the people recently held a meeting with representatives of the NHPC and worked out certain modalities for execution of the projects. The modalities include : to complete the survey and investigation fruitfully within the framework, to avoid confusion, misunderstanding and mismanagement, to ensure upkeeping of the socio-cultural, ecological structure of the local environment, to provide maximum employment, economic benefit to the local population and to ensure successful implementation of the project investigation and survey with mutual understanding.

''We are planning to go to Delhi soon to apprise the CMD of NHPC on the issue,'' Mr Rinpoche added.

UNI