IMPHAL, August 10 MNS/NNN: Hundreds of people in Sekmai in Imphal West district of Manipur on Saturday held a cycle rally against the proposed Tipaimukh Dam construction under the aegis of the Luwangbung Development Association, Awang Sekmai. The association also sent a memorandum to the Prime Minister to cancel the mega project citing the great potential impacts.
The rally which started from Nillapadma Primary School passed through various localities and then assembled at the starting point.
Kh. Malemnganba, member of the assn. said the state will face a lot of damages due to construction of the dam. No dam so far can’t give any utility to people as it can be known from Loktak Project.
The placards which read like go back NHPC, don’t torture people in the name of development and don’t try the Manipuries to become refugees.
Saying that very high ecological, environmental and social impact,and cost of the diversion of the vast tract of forest land will far outweigh the benefits likely to accrue from the project, Luwangbung Development Association said in the memorandum to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that it hopes the Government will respect the recommendation of the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) which says not to accord the approval for diversion of 22, 777, 50 hectres of forest land.
It also urged the Government of India and its Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) to desist from granting the forest diversion proposal for the Mizoram part of the Tipaimukh Project and to make the proceedings of the Indo-Bangladesh Sub-Group of proposed 1, 500 MW project and open and transparent.
The memorandum also said, “We urge the Government of India to revoke the earlier environment clearance on the mega project as the Forest Advisory Committee of the MoEF has rejected the forest clearance for the project based on its colossal environmental and social impacts.
Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/cycle-rally-taken-out/
