Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, March 22:
The Mapithel Dam Affected Villages Organisation (MDAVO) has submitted a strong memorandum to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on March 18 urging the later to look into the plights of the people affected by the construction of the Thoubal River Valley Multi-purpose Project or Mapithel Dam.
The memorandum submitted by MDAVO Chairman R Kasar said that the initial investigations and surveys and proposal for the construction of Mapithel Dam which had been put at 66 metres high and 1074 metres long were done without taking into consideration the opinions of the affected in 1976 which had been subsequently approved by the Planning Commission of India in 1980 at the hefty estimation cost of Rs.47.25 crores.
The memo stated that when the dam was commissioned in near future about 16 tribal villages would be submerged including their agricultural lands.
It said that 1285 hectares of cultivable land would be submerged.
In order to redress the affected people detail deliberations were done with the Govt of Manipur and finally an agreement was made in 1993 on 19th June that the government agreed pay compensations to the land owners and the affected people in instalments within two years time from the day the agreement was signed, said the memorandum of the MDAVO.
The memorandum then accused the Manipur government of playing piece meal game that only fractions percentage of the total agreed amount of compensations were paid to the affected land owners.
One fine day the government invited the affected people to get their last and final payment to which the people objected it strongly but then the Govt later declared that the payment of compensations had been completed, said the MDAVO memo to the PM.
Putting forward eight-point demands the MDAVO urged the Prime Minister to direct the State Govt to immediately constitute an expert committee to review the rehabilitation and settlement programmes of 1990 for the dam affected people and also to constitute an expert committee to review on the safety aspect of the dam as per law.
It also urged the PM to direct the state government to extend rights to the affected people to have accesses to the related documents of the dam/project, and also that the State Govt should set up a grievances cell to redress complaints.
It then urged the PM to instruct the Manipur Pollution Control Board to conduct a Public Hearing.