Arunachal’s growth trajectory and hydro-projects

Arunachal’s growth trajectory and hydro-projects

Published on Tuesday, March 16, 2010

On March 10, an organization called Up-stream Project Affected Area which comprises of almost 15 villages of Pangin-Boleng area along the banks of Siang River in East Siang district registered their protest in the form of a dharna outside the office of the Deputy Commissioner at Pasighat. In true sense of mass movement, the protest was supported by elites and youths like the East Siang District Students’ Union, Adi Students’ Union and Pangin-Boleng Students’ Union. Two interesting facets were witnessed from the protest movement. One, large presence of electronic and print media from Assam on the protest day at Pasighat and second, post-protest remarks of Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu in a press briefing at Itanagar.

Though Khandu cried foul of being misquoted wherein he referred to the protesters as anti-Arunachal; but his words are on record with media houses. His comment was distasteful. Perhaps, expectations of the protesting youths and village folks were of a statesmanship from the Chief Minister. Although he did clarify later; yet he failed short of retracting from his comment. One should bear in mind that the protestors hail from the village and areas where indigenous Arunachalees resisted British military expeditions; thus became part of Indian history and Arunachal’s folklore. Villagers’ forefathers fought with bows and arrows against the mighty British army and laid down their lives at Kekar-Monying. Thus in the early part of 1912, Arunachal became part of India’s freedom movement. Therefore, calling the children of patriots as anti-Arunachalees, that too when they were airing grievances within the democratic mechanism, was totally uncalled for. But it was appalling that the apex body of Adis, Adi-Bane Kebang, did not react at all to the Chief Minister’s comment. This is where the younger generation despises civil society.

It was also surprising to note that media houses from Assam were present in huge numbers and they were taking more interest in the protest than Arunachal media houses. Was it the lack of interest from local media houses or was it the over-enthusiasm of those from Assam? Answers could be both ways and time would tell the real reason behind it. But it would not be too far-fetched to imagine their motive behind such keen interest therefore protesting people would do well to remember that the first exploration and detail project report (DPR) for the dam over Siang River was prepared by Brahmaputra Flood Control Board (BFCB) which is even today largely an Assamese dominated organization. Why there wasn’t a protest in 1982 and why there is a protest today by certain sections of our neighbouring state?

From the socio-economic and ecological perspective, every dam may not be good and every dam may not be bad. But in case of Lower Siang Project, resentment appears to be combinations of socio-economic, ecological and emotional reasons too. This project is in the seismic zone V; resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) policy has not been explained properly; huge area of paddy field is projected to be submerged but with no alternatives in sight. Lastly, probability of submergence of historical site like Kekar-Monying, may have stirred emotions and sentiments of locals besides grievance of not being taken into confidence before GoAP embarked on the great journey of development with marathon signing of MoUs and MoAs.

Bereft of biasness, purely from common sense, one can draw an analogy between R&R policy and older version of PMGSY wherein GoI had put population as the eligibility criteria. As a consequence, Arunachal Pradesh did not benefit much. Similarly, Hydro-Power R&R states that 1 hectare of cultivable land would be compensated with Rs 1,75,000 or would be provided alternative cultivable land subject to availability of government land. But points are: has GoAP or Hydro-developers assessed the average size of land ownership? In topography full of terrains, hardly 15% of the populations have landholding of more than a hectare. Additionally, there is hardly any good cultivable land on higher ridge and most pertinently, there is no government land available in the vicinity. These are facts known to GoAP, Hydro-developers and locals; then why are they playing hide and seek; why are they pretending to be suffering from Ostrich syndrome? It is about time they need to sit across the table and negotiate to move forward.

Arunachal is on growth trajectory…. No one must be left behind; GoAP must carry along every Arunachalee and it is its responsibility to ensure that. It is a matter of time before Trans-Arunachal Highway kicks-off in the right earnest, connect with Trans-Asian Highway and Arunachal would soon become the gateway to South-East Asian market. Therefore, young Arunachalees also must be vigilant about vested parties and people, who would not like to see Arunachal become an economic power or a super-power in the coming years.