Newstrack India: Himachal
Pradesh: Thursday, March 27, 2014.
Chamba, March
26 (IANS) Hundreds of villagers Wednesday staged a protest in Himachal Pradesh
against the arrest of woman activists who were demanding shifting of a
hydropower project.
The 180 MW
Bajoli Holi hydropower project, located some 70 km from Chamba, has been facing
a public outcry since 2010 as the locals say it could not only displace them
but also affect the local ecology.
Twenty-five
villagers were arrested Tuesday evening on charges of forcibly stopping the
project authorities to carry out construction activity, a police official told
IANS.
He said they
have been booked under various sections including 332 (causing hurt to deter
public servant from his duty) and 153-A (promoting enmity).
Local
activist Mangni Ram said the women were staging a peaceful protest when they
were arrested.
"We will
not allow the project people to axe trees (from the project site) and carry out
any construction activity."
Ram said the
project has secured forest clearance from the Ministry of Environment and
Forests without the consent of the local gram sabhas in violation of the Forest
Rights Act of 2006.
"Holi
and its nearby villages are going to be hit badly by the project... resulting
in deforestation, drying up of water channels and even forced
displacement," he added.
Environmental
activist Rahul Saxena said the forest clearance was given merely on the basis
of a certificate issued by the deputy commissioner of Chamba stating that there
were no forest rights to be settled on the 75 hectare forest land to be
diverted for the project.
"The
original survey of the project conducted by the state electricity board has
proposed 15-km long tunnel and powerhouse of the project on the uninhabited
right bank of the Ravi river but the company has shifted them to the left bank
having dense forests," he said.
He said over
3,000 population of four gram panchayats in Holi area would be affected.
"The
decision to shift the powerhouse... by the project proponent GMR is
flawed," said Saxena, quoting a report of state-run Himachal Pradesh State
Electricity Board Ltd (HPSEBL).
According to
the HPSEBL report -- accessed by Saxena through Right to Information (RTI),
although constructing the project on the right bank of the river would result
in additional construction time of one-to-two years, not doing so would result
in avoidable losses to the locals and environment.
"One
cannot destroy an oasis in a desert only because it is more convenient to work
there," says the report.
The state
government awarded the hydropower project to GMR Hydro Power on
build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) basis for 40 years from the date of
commissioning.
The company
aims to commission the project by January 2018.