Arunachal residents protest against Siang multi-purpose dam project ahead of PMO-level talks

Guwahati: A day before a meeting convened by the Prime Minister's Office to push the work for construction of the Siang multi-purpose dam in Arunachal Pradesh, hundreds of residents took to the streets in Upper Siang district on Monday and demanded scrapping of the much-hyped project.

The youth wing of Siang Indigenous Farmers' Forum (SIFF) led the protest rally that was organised in response to reports about a meeting in New Delhi to be chaired by P. K. Mishra, the principal secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, scheduled on Tuesday evening.

The meeting is likely to take stock of the progress at the drilling site for a pre-feasibility study for the project, the communication strategy of the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC), a central PSU to implement the project, and the status of the new township to be constructed for those likely to be displaced, beside other issues.

"We don't want the Siang project.." protesters shouted as they took to the streets at Geku and staged a peaceful protest against the project. More than 1,500 people took part in the protest rally, the SIFF said.

Following the protest, SIFF wrote a letter addressed to Mishra demanding that the project be scrapped and the central forces deployed for a pre-feasibility study be withdrawn. "We, the Adi people of Siang do not want to dam our Aane Siang nor be displaced from our motherland...We shall continue protesting until our demand is fulfilled," said the letter signed by president of the SIFF's youth wing, Adum Tayom and general secretary, Dubit Siram.

The organisation has been staging a protest against the dam saying it would have adverse impact on the ecology of the Siang Valley and lead to displacements.

China dam:

The Centre, however, seeks to rush work on the multi-purpose project saying it would counter the threats posed by the 60,000MW dam in the upper reaches of the Siang river in Tibet, where the river is known as Yarlung Tsangpo.

Advocating for the Siang project, Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu recently said the Chinese dam is a ticking "water bomb" and could pose an existential crisis to Arunachal Pradesh. He claimed that China dam could reduce water flow into the Siang or the Brahmaputra during the winter and trigger massive floods due to release of excessive water during the rainy season.