This from the Sentinel:
http://www.sentinelassam.com/mainnews/story.php?sec=1&subsec=0&id=55809&dtP=2010-12-05&ppr=1#55809
‘Lower Subansiri project can be abandoned’, , By our Staff Reporter, Guwahati,
Dec 4: National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) executive director BR
Saraf says that the hydel power project at Lower Subansiri can be abandoned or
its possible adverse effects on downstream areas can be controlled if all the
stakeholders, including the Assam Government, so desire. He maintains that
though more than 50 per cent of the work on the big dam has been completed,
structural changes can still be made to the project with the help of advanced
science and technology if such recommendations are made by the expert committee
to be formed by the Centre., Talking to The Sentinel today, Saraf said, “The
NHPC project at Lower Subansiri can be abandoned if all the stakeholders,
including the State Government, so desire.”, He said, “The concerns raised by
various quarters about the NHPC project at Lower Subansiri are hypothetical.
The NHPC started work on the project with permissions or no objection
certificates from all sides concerned and after conducting a study of the
seismic aspect of the area. The possible adverse effects of the project on
downstream areas can be curbed according to an agreement among all the
stakeholders.”, Saraf said, “With the help of advanced science and technology,
we can still make structural changes to the project if any recommendations
come from the expert committee.” , Asked on the apprehensions expressed by
the public about devastating floods in the downstream areas because of water
released for power generation during peak hours, the NHPC official said,
“There are options to regulate water released during peak hours. There is
greater demand for power in the evening hours when more water will be released
to produce more electricity. The NHPC will have no objection if the all the
stakeholders decide that power should be generated throughout the day, at
regular intervals, and not during only peak hours. But the amount of power
produced in this way will be less than that generated during peak hours.”,
Saraf said, “As per instructions from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), we
had formed an expert committee to study possible downstream effects following
public resentment against construction of the dam at Lower Subansiri. But the
issue of downstream effects has got overshadowed.”, “We are a Government of
India undertaking and not a private company. If all the stakeholders in the
project agree in the greater interest of the public that the project should be
stopped, we will have no objection, ” he added.
*** WHO are ALL the stakeholders? How does NHPC become a 'stakeholder' here?
What gives them the right to be one? The true stakeholders here are the people
living downstream
whose lives have been intertwined with the river for millenia.
*** Can Assam govt., a puppet regime at best, be a 'stakeholder' here to write
off on the lives and livelihoods of the people living downstream ? What is
Assam govt's expertise to rely upon?
What has its track-record been in standing up for and protecting Assam's
legitimate interests?
*** Democracy? Just go to Outlook.com and check out some of the leaked
telephone taps about the 2G scandal, and it will tell us everything we need to
know how Desi-Demokrasy works.
If Assdam could get hold of Niira Radia with Rolls Royce or something as
compensation, maybe there is a chance for Assam's voice to be heard.
*** Why is it that the Indian govt. keeps forming EXPERT panels and its
puppets at Dispur keeps yelping yes, yes, yes? Does it take a genius to figure
out that the govt.
is shopping for a rubber-stamper to validate what it decided to do, regardless
of the facts? It is abundantly clear that the govt. is attempting to keep the
issue under a lid to get over the
elections, and after it wins irt, will go ahead and do what it always planned
to.
*** "Concerns raised are HYPOTHETICAL?" So what other kinds of CONCERNS are
there that are NOT hypothetical, about a planned or under construction project?
See how , with the use of ONE solitary word, the entire issue has been trashed,
making it sound groundless? But hypothetrical issues MUST be explained, that
there is no basis
for such concerns. And IF there are no concerns, then WHY the willingness to
change the power generating routine from 4 hrs. per day to REGULAR INTERVALS?
Is the threat of evening flooding
of the river everyday, hypothetical as it is according to Saraf, is something
they will relent on?
What about the benefits of power generating at regular intervals throughout the
day?
There is little difference. The river flow downstream will continue be a yo-yo,
flooding and drying up, several times a day. Imagine what it will do to aquatic
life! And the threat of sudden release of huge amounts of water, piano-key-weir
or no piano-key-weir, will NEVER go away. It will take just one unseasonably
high rainfall to doom the downstreamers.
*** Structural, changes could still be made, using modern technology after the
fact? What kind of hih-twechnology is he referring to? Would they share the
secret?
And why repairs after the fact? Did the Govt. NOT claim that this has been the
longest ( 25 years) and most thoroughly studied project NHPC has undertaken? If
so what did they forget
that might have to be retrofitted should the 'EXPERT panel ' they are NOW
putting together. Should that NOT have been done to begin with?
The fact is NHPC knew long ago the geologic unsuitability of the site, but they
ignored it.
When NHPC was v confronted with the fact that the foundation has been built to
only 9 meters depth as opposed to the design requirement of 17 meters depth,
the excuse
was that they encountered bed-rock at 9 meters.
IF SO, WHAT DOES THAT TELL US ABOUT THE QUALITY OF THE EXHAUSTIVE GEOTECHNICAL
STUDY THAT WAS SUPPOSEDLY UNDERTAKEN BY THE BEST
AUTHORITIES ON THE SUBJECT FROM IIT ROORKEE? The location and quality of the
bedrock structure is one of the most basic requirement of a geotech analysis
and they did NOT do it or was not capable of doing it.
I have heard that this 'expert' himself had to admit that he only did a
generalized study of the area, not a site specific 'exhaustive' analysis as
NHPC claimed time and again.
*** And what are the truths about the so-called 25 year long study? We b need
to get more info on that. What I will say is this:
There is an ancient Oxomiya bit of wisdom that holds: " Goru haal
baalew buraa hoy, haal nabalew buraa hoy" ( A bull gets old regardless of
whether it ever did a days
worth of work)
So, the efficacy of the 'study' will have to be judged by its quality. So far
it has been pretty darn shaky.
cm
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