GUWAHATI, June 11— Concerned NGOs and members of the public from various corners of Arunachal Pradesh and other parts of the NE region raised serious objections to the way the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) is functioning in the region, at a public hearing on environmental issues on Wednesday. The National Hydroelectric Power Corporation Ltd., in cooperation with the Pollution Control Board (PCB), Arunachal Pradesh and the office of the Deputy Commissioner of West Siang District of Arunachal Pradesh, organized the Environmental Public Hearing at the Aalo Club in Aalo, the district headquarters of West Siang in central Arunachal on the Siang Middle (Siyom) H. E. Project on Wednesday.
The hearing ended at sunset amidst wide public protest. Another public hearing is stated on August 3 at the same venue. T. Milang (Member Secretary, Pollution Control Board, Arunachal Pradesh), chairman of the hearing panel apologised to the gathering for the serious procedural mistakes and overstepping of the established mandate of the panel, stated a release. The town house, Along was packed with more than 800 people including the gaonburas from the affected villages in their red coats, and public eager to know more about the project and the proceedings of the hearing. Concerned NGOs and indigenous peoples’ organisations were present in good number. The representatives of the NHPC introduced the Corporation, its activities in the North East region, and the Middle Siang (SIYOM) Project. Two video films were also screened at the beginning of the hearing by the NHPC.
During public participation, a few persons like Jarjum Ete, president of the Center for Environment, Development and Gender Empowerment (CEDGE) and spokesperson and former president of the Arunachal Pradesh Women’s Welfare Society (APWWS) Itanagar, Domin Loya of the NEFA Indigenous Human Rights Organisation (NIHRO), and Horsen Ete, secretary of the Siang Valley Bachao Committee shared their understandings and information of the process of the mandatory public hearing as part of such large development projects. At the very outset, the speakers mentioned that the experiences of existing NHPC projects in the region, especially the Loktak project in Manipur and Teesta-V project in Sikkim, were far from the impressions conveyed in the promotional films that were shown.
These representatives from the non-governmental sector informed the participants about the processes of a public hearing, the mandatory 30 days’ notice of date, prior announcement of venue, time, names of panelists. The public access to the documents like the Application and Questionnaire of the NHPC, Environment Impact Assessment and Environment Management Plan (EIA & EMP) executed by Water and Power Consultancy Services (WAPCOS), the Detailed Project Report (DPR), the Executive Summary of the EIA & EMP or the DPR which must be made available to the concerned public 30 days ahead of the hearing were also clearly explained to the public by them. These documents, especially the executive summary of the EIA and EMP should be translated into local languages and dialects for the benefit of the local, affected and concerned people, they said.
The NGO representatives also raised questions about the independence and authenticity of the sources of the report since some serious misinformation about the land rights and fishing rights of the local indigenous community, and terrestrial ecology had been noted in the EIA, a copy of which the NGOs could get only two days before the hearing after much running around. NGO representatives also noted that the EIA and EMP field surveys were totally inadequate as they were conducted only in three seasons, leaving out the longest and most important monsoon season in the project area.
During the day it also came to public knowledge that even the members on the panel of the public hearing were not aware of the established mandate and objectives of such a hearing as required by the EIA Notification 1994 amended on June 13, 2002 of the Central Ministry of Environment and Forests, nor had any of the panel members seen the relevant documents in full. They also did not seem to be aware about the discrepancies in the documents submitted by NHPC to the Ministry of Environment and Forests. Thus, during the public interaction session, the people expressed their concern regarding the lack of transparency on the part of the NHPC all these days. Some participants also alleged that NHPC seemed to have two faces – one for the public and another hidden from the public.
A majority of the speakers from the affected areas said that they had learnt a lot more about the project and its possible impacts for the first time after coming to the hearing, and the information raised many doubts in their minds. Two gaonburas from Bogu and Payum said that their land had always sustained their lives even if they had no jobs or salaries. They said that the land of the people were the only real asset left for future generations and they did not want to part with their land because the compensation money cannot sustain their families for too long.
Taponyaying, gaonbura of Bogu village said, “Let us forget about this dam, and let us live in peace.” Summing up the public opinions at the end of the hearing Jarjum Ete came down heavily on the panel members for conducting the hearing in violation of established guidelines of the Ministry of Environment and Forests. She said that such a public hearing should have been organized by the State Pollution Control Board, and not by NHPC the project applicant.
Four organisations viz, the Center for Environment, Development and Gender Empowerment (CEDGE), Siang Valley Bachao Committee (SVBC), NEFA Indigenous Human Rights Organisation (NIHRO) and Brahmaputra and Barak Rivers Watch (BBW) jointly moved a widely supported public motion requesting the authorities concerned to schedule another Public Hearing after observing all the established norms and guidelines of the MoEF, said the press release.