A large number of villagers that also included children took to the street of Mynsang village today and blocked government officials to hold a public hearing venue at Siangkhnai village.
A public hearing was scheduled in Siangkhnai under Mawkynrew block in East Khasi Hills district by the Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board for the 210 MW Umngot mega dam project to be executed by the MeECL.
However, since morning villagers lined up the road towards the venue of the public hearing with banners and slogans to register their unwillingness to accept the proposal for fear of displacement and loss of livelihood.
Officials had to return as the road was blocked by people from the various villages likely to be displaced by the project. The magistrate assigned to chair the public hearing too had to return without reaching the venue as the campaigners refused to budge.
Protest at another public hearing scheduled tomorrow at Moosakhia under West Jaiñtia Hills district is also expected as the Elaka Darrang and villagers to be affected by the project are attending to show their disapproval to the project.
The Khasi Students Union and Federation of Khasi Jaiñtia and Garo People of the War Jaiñtia Circles have extended their support to the Elaka.
KSU circle president, Laitphar Syngkrem said that people along the Umngot are dependent on the river and constructing a dam on India’s cleanest rivers, which has and is attracting thousands of tourists, would hamper all the efforts put in by villagers towards development of tourism.
Meanwhile, the Meghalaya Pradesh Mahila Congress has criticized the State government for going against the will of the communities and the population by proposing to set up the project in Umngot.
Mahila Congress President, Joplyn Scott Shylla said, “The gradual landlessness of our farmers is an important aspect that the state and society should look at from the socio-economic viewpoint and not just from a commercial microscope point.”
Pointing out that the project will lead to many villages prone to submergence and landless farmers would have to vacate their farms the Mahila Congress said villages like Umsawwar under Mawkynrew Block and others like Darrang, Amkoi, Shnongpdeng, Dawki under Amlarem Block that bring tourism activities and livelihood would be impacted by the project.
“The construction of the dam would go against Articles 25, 26, 31, and 32 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples to which India has also signed. This violation will adversely impact the local community considering the stellar role it has played in acting as custodian to the local environment,” Shylla said.
It may be mentioned that the first public hearing which was held in 2012 also met with stiff opposition from villages and farmers on the banks of the Umngot.
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. Records show that seven villages whose cultivated lands are in the submergence area are Umsawar, Mawdulop, Mynsang, Jatah Nonglyer, Ksanrngi, and Mawsir.
