Imphal, August 18 NNN: In Tamenglong district, petrolium extraction plan on Friday faced a stiff opposition from the local residents as large number of agitating people forced the district administrators and the company’s authorities to sign an agreement on ‘no petrolium excavation’ in Manipur.
Hundreds of protesting local people under the aegis of the Committee on Protection of Natural Resources of Manipur thronged Nungba Community Hall holding placards and trying to mar a public hearing on the issue. They showed strong opposition against the plan, saying the people stand against it.
Notwithstanding the protest, the district authority somehow began the hearing under tight security around 11 a.m. Soon after that, the agitatation turned violence and started to disrupt the hearing shouting anti-exploration slogans.
As the tension escalated the district Deputy Commissioner C Arthur rushed at the site and tried to pacify the agitators making appeal to stay calm and leave the site. Not heeding to his request, another group of agitators arrived at the scene and stopped the DC from leaving the area.
The protestors later forced Arthur to sign an agreement to stop oil exploration in the state.
Mention may be made here that on August 14, the All Zeliangrong Students’ Union (Assam, Manipur and Nagaland) had urged the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India to “withdraw” the PEL licenses granted to Jubilant Oil and Gas Private Limited (JOGPL), based in the Netherlands which has been awarded the contract works for the exploration and drilling in two oil blocks in Manipur located in the Jiribam (Imphal East district), Tamenglong and Churachandpur districts of Manipur.
According to the Zeliangrong students’ body, the contracts were awarded to the Netherlands based company under the eighth round of New Exploration Licensing Policy Eight round (NELP-VIII). The Government of India had signed the “Production Sharing Contract” (PSC) on July 19, 2010 in New Delhi with JOGPL for onland oil block in Manipur, codenamed (AA-ONN-2009/1) & (AA-ONN-2009/2), said the AZSU.
Another area that concerns the AZSU is the lack of transparency. “No details on the quantum of oil discovered in Manipur or results of studies have been revealed so far to the people of the state. The indigenous minorities of Manipur are not informed officially till date that, oil is found in Manipur and that contract has been offered to foreign companies for exploration. That, the Detailed Project Report, Production Sharing Contract, the Petroleum Exploration Licensing agreements, EMP, EIA, MOU, social, cultural and economic assessments, which are signed between the Government of India, Government of Manipur and the Jubilant Oil and Gas Private Limited in the year 2010 are not provided to the indigenous peoples of Manipur, more so with the affected peoples of Tamenglong, Churachandpur and Jiribam sub division of Imphal East Districts. No one in Manipur is aware of what kind of terms and conditions are laid down in the licensing between the Government and the Jubilant Oil and Gas Private Limited. The Draft EAI and executive summary did not include indigenous languages like Zeme, Liangmei, Kuki, etc which is mandatory in the public hearing process. The petroleum exploration is an international issue which needs immediate attention to control the Climate Change phenomenon. This project will destroy the biodiversity hot spot zone. It will affect the aquatic habitat of India and her neighboring countries; permanent damage of green zone of India, endanger species, relocation of animal habitat and their environment, disturb migratory birds and animal in the region. It will disturb the rail heads crossing the region, Tipaimukh dam, etc.,” said the AZSU.The AZSU then expressed its concern that innocent villagers of Tamenglong district, who have no technical knowledge of the n impacts .
Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/tamenglong-no-to-oil-exploration/
