NHPC executive director Rakesh with Congress Legislature Party leader Debabrata Saikia at the dam site on Wednesday. Telegraph picture

Guwahati, Nov. 16: Leader of the Opposition in the Assam Assembly Debabrata Saikia has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hold the much-delayed tripartite meeting for examining the expert committee report on the stalled 2,000MW NHPC Lower Subansiri hydroelectric project at Gerukamukh on the state’s border with Arunachal.

In a three-page letter to the PMO last week, Saikia has stated how the Centre has not convened the tripartite meeting to discuss the experts committee report and without addressing the grievances of the people of Assam, work on the project will not resume.

“In view of the above, I demand that the Centre immediately convene another tripartite meeting as agreed upon earlier to consider the report submitted by the eight-member experts panel and till then no work should start on the project,” Saikia has said.

The project oversight committee, formed in December 2014, has four members from Assam, who in a news meet in March, had opposed the resumption of work in their final report, citing several seismological and geological reasons.

The four experts – Jatin Kalita, B.P. Buarah, Chandan Mahanta and S.P. Biswas – had submitted their reports separately in January to the Union power ministry citing differences in opinion with the government-selected members.

Saikia has ended his letter by stating, “The Assam Congress Legislature Party will support the construction of dam if the concerns of the people are answered to the satisfaction of the people of Assam.”?

The leader of the Opposition today also visited the dam site along with party colleague Pradyut Bhuyan in between campaigning for the Lakhimpur Lok Sabha seat and met NHPC executive director Rakesh.

Saikia told The Telegraph that he would also write to Assembly Speaker Ranjeet Kumar Dass to send an all-party team to the dam site so that they are made aware of the ground realities.

“It will only help if public representatives become familiar with the project, its problems and implications. I have also suggested to the NHPC to make public leaders and opinion makers aware about other big dams such as Narmada or Tehri,” he said.

The dam issue has been part of the election campaign for the Lakhimpur Lok Sabha seat where the Congress and the ruling BJP are in a straight contest.

The BJP, which was against the project while in Opposition, is trying to revive the project, something opposed by the agitating groups unless the safety concerns were addressed.

News Source The Telegraph