Arunachal: Dite Dime Villagers’ Massive Protest Against 11,000 MW Upper Siang Project

Protests against the 11,000 MW Upper Siang Multipurpose Storage project is back. Hundreds of villagers of Dite Dime in Upper Siang district came out today to voice their protest against the proposed dam project over the Siang river.

Despite inclement weather, hundreds of villagers carrying banners and placards gathered at the Bridge Site and raised slogans against the dam project. The protest was organized jointly by the All Adi Welfare Society, Siang Indigenous Farmers Forum (SIFF) and Bango Students Union.

Protestors alleged that the government and the NHPC ‘had forcibly’ started conducting Pre- Feasibility Report Survey in an effort to break the morale of the anti-dam activists. The villagers also submitted a complaint to the SP, Siang in this regard against NHPC.

Last month, the Arunachal Government held talks with SIFF as the Farmers Forum have been staging protests to oppose the dam as they believe that the project will wipe out 1.5 lakh people of the state and including the entire Adi community living in the Siang and Upper Siang districts.

The locals of Siang district consider the river Siang as their mother.

The talks remained inconclusive and the Farmers Forum made it clear that there will be no survey and no dam.

The Government, however, maintains that the project is necessary to save the Siang and counter China’s colossal 60,000 MW dam that it is planning to build.

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