IMPHAL, June 29 – A five-member delegation from Manipur and Assam has urged Bangladeshi nationals – at home and abroad – to be united and protest against the controversial 1500 MW Tipaimukh dam project in Northeastern India. They were addressing a “Sanghati Samabesh” (solidarity meeting) at the seminar hall of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) on June 22.

The team reached Sylhet on June 21 to express solidarity with the anti-Tipaimukh dam campaign in Bangladesh. The delegation includes Prof RK Ranjan Sinha of Earth Science Department of Manipur Central University, environmentalists Ramananda, Joseph Hmar, R K Bikramjit and Arnab Dutta. Engineer Muhammad Hilal Uddin, coordinator of the Jatiya Tipaimukh Bandh Protirodh Committee accompanied the team to Sylhet.

The speakers said 57 per cent dams in the world were responsible for environmental degradation in India and China. Now things are to be dealt internationally because Tipaimukh project would just wreak havoc on Bangladesh.” We are here to express our solidarity with Bangladeshi people” said Prof Sinha. The project is not at all a viable one, he said, adding, “We want Bangladesh to sit with the Indian authorities to discuss the crucial issue. Besides, it is an issue of common rivers and India cannot make decisions alone.”

A documentary on the protests against Tipaimukh project since its preparatory work began 10 years ago was also presented. The speakers said there should be strong awareness against the Tipaimukh project. Disasters caused by our impudent activities throughout the world have put the nature’s balance at risk, they added.

Emphasising the need for mutual interests they said as an upper riparian country India should consider Bangladesh’s interest on moral ground since Indians would also be badly affected by the project. “We have to raise strong protest at home and abroad against the mega project for our survival,” they asserted.

They further said the inhabitants of the country’s North East region including greater Sylhet and Mymensingh as well as whole Bangladesh and the Indian States of Assam and Manipur should raise strong protest against the project, since it would create catastrophe in the whole region. Already several Indian groups had registered their voice against the much talked about project.

- THE ASSAM TRIBUNE | SOBHAPATI SAMOM

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