Assam NGO moves SC, seeks stay on NGT order on power project

GUWAHATI: The Assam Public Works (APW), an NGO, has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) order on the 2,000 MW Lower Subansiri Hydropower Project (LSHP).

In July, the NGT had dismissed petitions that sought the reconstitution of an expert committee for the project at Gerukamukh on Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border being constructed by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation.

In its petition, the APW said if the NGT order was implemented, it would put the environment to huge disadvantage. The NGO said the “committee appointed was already pre-decided and one of its members had been already consulted by the Project Oversight Committee, thus amounting to fulfilling the criteria of being a judge in their own cause”.

APW president Aabhijeet Sharma said the NGT’s order was in conflict to a previous observation that there were serious problems with the project.

The LSHP is a Central government project which was approved allegedly without any proper study of the geotectonic and seismic conditions. Scientists from IIT-Guwahati and other universities in the state had earlier raised some key issues such as the inappropriate location and height of the dam. They recommended that the dam’s height be suitably reduced to minimize the impact downstream.

For the past seven years or so, the project work has remained suspended in the wake of massive protests by various organisations.

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