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Question of Dams on Ganga

CFGD lends support to Central Government

Press Conference on 11th April 2010

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A press conference was held by Citizens For Green Doon to welcome the decision of the Central Government to stop work on the Bhaironghati and Pala-Maneri hydroelectric projects. Press Conference by CFGD Speaking at the conference Dr Ravi Chopra, a member of the National Ganga River Basin Authority, said that he was a regular visitor to the area where the proposed dams were to be constructed and had also been a part of the Central team which went to assess the compliance status of the Loharinag-Pala hydroelectric project. “The entire region from Gaumukh to Uttarkashi easily qualifies as an ecologically sensitive area according to the MoEF criteria. Therefore no dams should be built in this area. Besides, building tunnels that would be several kilometers long threaten the slope stabilities and the security of the villages on these slopes. The EIA report of the Pala-Maneri project itself admits that its tunnel crosses an active fault that could lead to a disaster in the event of an earthquake in this Zone V area,” he said. Dr Chopra charged the State Government with twisting facts. He said that the earliest time in which these dams could have produced electricity was 5 years for Pala Maneri and 7 years for Bhaironghati. To blame the current shortfall in electricity on their cancellation is ridiculous. He said that the Uttarakhand Electricity Regulatory Commission had time and again pointed out corruption, theft and scores of irregularities in the generation and distribution of electricity. Yet no politician had ever bothered to demand action against the erring state agencies and their officials, allowing the common people to suffer. “They are only interested in the construction of dams and not in the supply of power,” he said. Dr Ravi Chopra joining CFGD Dr Chopra blamed Uttarakhand’s successive governments for the present power shortages. They had invited heavy power consuming industries to set up shop in the state without assessing the power availability. The Uttarakhand Power Corporation had in the past warned the state government that it would not be able to meet the demands of the rush of industries like steel mills which were heavy power consumers. But these warnings were deliberately ignored. “Barely a few hundred companies in the terai region consume more than half of all the power supplied in the state. Normally hardly 13% is supplied to the mountain region while the rest is consumed in the terai area. If the government had focused on equitable regional development and the tourism industry, people in the mountain villages would have got employment and power shortages could be averted,” asserted Dr Chopra. Dr Chopra called for a public debate and a comprehensive assessment of Uttarakhand’s power needs and potential with an emphasis on equity, environmental sustainability and security of people’s lives and livelihoods. Dr Nitin Pandey of Citizens for Green Doon said that instead of building dams and then long transmission lines, the Government should generate solar or wind energy locally. This will save the environment and ensure an uninterrupted supply to distant villages in the hills. He said that Nature had given Uttarakhand lot of sunlight and wind on hilltops which should be harnessed. He also said that politicians are not interested in exploiting this because the number of sub contracts in this is negligible. He said that the silent majority of State’s residents supported the decision to stop work in these projects. Talking to members after Press Conference