| Weighing Options
It is good news that the NEEPCO would not be taking any action in haste regarding the construction of the dam for the controversial Tipaimukh hydro-electric project at the confluence of the Barak and Tuivai rivers, until the coast has been cleared by the Central government as well as the villagers that will be directly effected by the rising waters once the dam is constructed.
While the gesture is good, the intent, it is obvious from the press conference of the executive director (corporate) of the NEEPCO Ltd., Shillong, SR Nath, is to convince the people of the benefits to be reaped from the project. This is fair enough, considering the issue is still kept as an open-ended debate for all to thrash out its pros and cons, and we hope all concerned will take advantage and forward their honest opinions on the matter so that if the project is dropped or otherwise taken up, it will be because an informed consensus based on honest, public as well as expert assessments, had successfully been evolved.
In other words, let the final decision be one which nobody will regret, or one in which if regret becomes inevitable, everybody will at least have the satisfaction that it was by no other's fault than his own that things went wrong.
In such a situation as we are facing, we would give weightage to two sets of opinion. One is the opinion of the people on the ground, and the other that of the experts. What exactly do the people who stand to be directly affected, for the better or for the worse, by the dam, say on the issue? Inspite of all the years that have gone by since the dam proposal first came up and the resultant dust that was kicked up, the inputs that the media have been receiving are rather mixed. The letters to the editor columns of the local newspaper every time the debate on the Tipaimukh dam is revived is an indicator.
Some villagers in the Timapmukh area, mostly of the Hmar community, seem to want it and view it as a hope for changes for the betterment to their lives. Others from the Tamenglong area, mostly of Zeliangrong tribes, do not seem to, on the ground of ecological destructions that would occur and also because of their traditionally held belief that all of the Timapmukh catchment area is their sole preserve. Enterprising pressmen have done their own independent studies, and these, although have added to the pool of valuable information on the matter, cannot be said to be conclusive.
On the other hand, what we find lacking is expert opinion on the matter. We do not mean armchair experts and NGOs whose only preoccupation is to maintain press clippings files and write papers for influential seminars out of them, but people preferably with formal back groundings in academic disciplines such as geology and environmental studies, who can lend their expertise in studying the ground reality and put the entire debate in perspective.
The dam is important. We need the 1500MW of power that will be generated, apart from the other benefits that are promised. The complaints against the perennial problem of load shedding are adequate proofs. But let it be clear that we are willing to sacrifice all these and more only if the sacrifice is worth it. So let the debate also focus on the worth of the sacrifices as well as the losses the project will inflict.
(The Imphal Free Press) |
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