Fresh moves to resurrect the recently terminated 270 MW Umngot mega dam has sent a shock wave through the villages likely to be affected with displacement.
The Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) has come up with new plans to build it.
A public hearing is called on April 9, 2021 at Moosakhia village in Amlarem in West Jaiñtia Hills district, as per a Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board (MSPCB) notification.
The MSPCB has asked people with views to write to them with their objections and suggestions.
Farmers on the banks of the Umngot river had barely heaved a sigh of relief when the mega dam of about 111 meters high which was proposed to be built on their river was terminated by the State government last August. This renewed bid has put the heat on them once again.
Many living along the river had banded together since the first public hearing held in 2012 to campaign against the building the dam. Sources told Highland Post that, the Ka Kynhun Ki Nongrep Harud Wah Umngot, a network of villages and farmers on the banks of the Umngot, which had opposed the dam throughout since its inception, has sent out the alert to be ready to defend their lands and livelihood for the second time.
This project is the same one planned by the MeECL in 2007. The dam will be built on the same site planned earlier, i.e in the Siangkhnai village. Thirteen villages located in West Jaiñtia Hills and East Khasi Hills, are likely to lose some 296 hectares of land to submergence according to the project documents.
The original memorandum of understanding with M/s Jaiprakash Power Ventures Limited signed with MeECL was terminated in August 2020 by the government of Meghalaya because as claimed by Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, it had failed to implement the project in 13 years due to financial problems. But local sources contested this saying that “JP could not go ahead with the dam building because of the opposition from the affected people.”
Records show that seven villages whose cultivated lands are in the submergence area such as Umsawar, Mawdulop, Mynsang, Jatah Nonglyer, Ksanrngi, and Mawsir with individuals from other villages had opposed the dam.
Sources said that nothing has changed that position and therefore the state is likely to see a flurry of activity once again on that front.
