On the 1st of December I woke up to learn that our Prime Minister wasn't going to Tipaimukh. I was sad and glad. Sad, because a visit like this no matter how brief, like the President's recent visit, would have got that distant corner of the world some sort of 'development'... never to come normally.

Then, I was glad because a good man like him was not going to blindly lay a foundation stone for a dam, whose story seems to have just begun when it ought to have ended. So, I am gladder still that there might be time for a fairer deal for my small man.

This godsend delay also gives me - an absolute layman – a rather late opportunity to add my little two-piece bits, perhaps to complicate the plot further. But my reasons are honourable viz. nothing must start without a complete re-think towards an exciting and worthwhile beginning for the dam-affected tribal folks, in particular, and the people of Manipur, in general.

Front-piece:

At the outset, however, let it be clear: I am compelled by the circumstances we live in to be pro-dam. Pro-dams, actually, not because I like dams but because Manipur's means to a miraculous transformation lies through massive electrification, and that means dams. Today's lobbyists, for and against, and the majority of us who keep quiet, all agree that we desperately need electricity to light our homes and place of work 24 hours a day!

It is only from that unceasing availability that development in all fields can take off. In fact, the slogan ought to be power for development rather than that elusive peace for development. I think all of us also know that this development has to come in a big, quick and assured way... that too, if I may add, with as much free power as possible.

The stress is on as much free power as possible - at least till we become better citizens - because we are not, for a long time to come, going to change our old habit of not paying our bills. Rather, not ever discarding our art, or is it a science, of making it impossible to make electricity bills in the first place. So, till better times come, Manipur needs as much free power as it can get! The above necessity that stares us in the face compels me to be a damned pro-dam-mer!

Consequently, this writer is bold enough to declare that, in the matter of Manipur's dams

a) he opts for smaller dams... because, among other things, he quite quite believes in the philosophy of small is beautiful, and
(b) he insists that the projects must be accompanied by the rider: No dams without a very special give and take ... that guarantees a very long-term full protection to the small man, here the dam-affected tribal folks.

Moreover, smaller dams definitely mean less danger to those who live beyond the dams, and less loss to those before the dams.

Taking the above as a given, the first of my two-piece bits to the plot is:
Instead of having one mega Tipaimukh Dam, why not have four smaller dams in four different locations? Four dams that together would probably, more effectively and more safely save Cachar/Assam from its annual ritual of devastating floods; would collectively hold more water; would probably generate more electricity, would certainly help develop more different places and benefit more different communities of Manipur, all at around the same time ... all with the same amount of money.

Add to that the likelihood that the four dams would inundate fewer villages, less useful land, no sacred sites and leave alone the unique water-falls and lakes etc., whereas, a mega dam would indiscriminately and imperially inundate a huge area. That is un-acceptable to many though many would like several dams.

The above can be put in another way: A mega-dam-affected tribal folk would protest vehemently, saying ... I'll never allow 'my village' to be submerged by 'their dam'! ... However, if there were to be FOUR DAMS the words could alter to: ... I do not mind too much if 'my dam' takes away 'my village'!

The above naive but frank voice from the hill-folk must not be taken lightly. Because, after all, history has proved that the dam-affected villager has always been the loser, in spite of the likes of Medha Patkar or Arun-dhati Roy.

Now, because of the countless failures till date, it is at this point when a tribal is asked to let go of his land that this writer insists on a new set of pro-small man conditions. For, if and when the dams come up here, one must never forget that the dam-affected tribal folk had been made to sacrifice everything he had, has and was planning to have ... just so that you and I can run air conditioners in the Secretariat and our kids turn bleary-eyed indulging in playstations ... while the dam-affected tribal swaggers and splurges in new-found wealth they cannot handle! (Let me take this up a little later).

Coming back to the idea of more dams, it is nothing new. All we have to do is look at what ought to have been advertised five or more years ago, viz. the recent full page advertisements on the Tipaimukh Dam by the Electric Department, Government of Manipur. There, under "Projects in pipeline" we are told of 5 more dams (three in Tamenglong, one each in Churachandpur and Senapati) to be constructed after the Tipaimukh Dam.

Thus the suggestion is: Why not club together all the dams having anything to do with the Barak River? We shall then have four smaller dams built along its course, instead of one mega-dam.

These should be commissioned at around the same time to simultaneously benefit three different districts of Manipur. That would mean simultaneous benefits to many communities for whom these districts are home. As for the dams, no doubt, the biggest of the four would probably still be at Tipaimukh.

The three slightly smaller ones spread out - one on the Tuivai River pouring into the Barak, one in Tamenglong District and one in Senapati District, the very source of the Barak. (How fitting it would be that the district that gives birth to the Barak river directly enjoys benefits from its 'baby'!)

The new dams should be located at places that would give an ear to local sentiments and concerns, viz of the likely-to-be-affected hill folks, and thus avoid submerging, say the Barak waterfalls and Zeilad lake, among others. In other words, as long as heads and hearts are put together there'll be a way. Not the old: where there's a will there's a way.

The beauty of small is beautiful is that, while drastically reducing the danger to Cachar/Assam (say, in the event of a dam-burst) the economic cake, pegged today at Rs.8,000 crore (and sure to go beyond Rs.10,000 crore) can get farmed out to more people in more areas of Manipur.

Just picture this: About Rs.1500-2000 crores each coming to Tamenglong and Senapati districts while Churachandpur district would probably get much more, say Tipaimukh's Rs. 2500 crores and Tuivai's Rs.1500-2000 crores. (In fact, one could only wish the River Barak had another loop that could have included one or all the Imphal Valley districts and the districts of Chandel and Ukhrul too!

Then the cake could have been truly shared even more, in the region of Rs.1000-1500 crores per dam! But the ground reality does not permit that wishful thinking. Anyway, the point is I am for sharing everything, as far as possible, with the added safety of 'small is beautiful,' plus some more).

Continuing with the yumminess of four large slices of a dam-inspired-economic cake ... just picture this again:
More dams would mean more power-houses;
more lakes;
more new townships;
more resorts;
more water supplies;
more irrigation;
more jobs to more different locals;
more contracting and more sub-contracting;
more entrepreneurs; more tourism and recreation;
more development of pisci-culture;
more central schools, more banks;
more roads; more opening up remote areas;
many more wire-laden electric poles for much more real rural electrification ...

In short, much more of everything, both good and bad, especially under the more sticky grounds of Relief & Resettlement's Compensation, Physical Rehabilitation, Economic Rehabilitation etc. Yes, more of everything, and yet, most likely, considerably less difficulties in getting all the necessary clearances from all the departments and ministries involved ... along with the nod of a more-surer-to-benefit civil society.

Now, at this juncture of my small is beautiful plot, let me expand upon what I had touched earlier. Needless to say this is the most crucial aspect of the whole dam matter (pun intended). So here are the five pro-small man riders this writer champions and insists on, viz:
1. Indelible Identification as a Privileged Dam-Affected Person (IIPDAP): The idea of this somewhat grand-sounding ID system, stems from knowing that there seems to be a kind of stigma in being dam-affected and, also on knowing how claimants to compensation seem to increase on the sly. To counter the above, why can't each dam's dam-affected tribal folk – every man, woman and child, living on the day the foundation stone is laid - be registered and made known to one and all?

This writer hopes that each IIPDAP commands the respect she/he deserves from all! A respect that comes from, say, what moves us to salute soldiers when we read on a rock at the Kohima War Cemetery: When you go home Tell them of us and say For your tomorrow We gave our today.

In a somewhat similar vein, these tribal folks are going to give their today - their lands, legends, loves and lores – and take on a most un-certain tomorrow for the welfare of you and I, in Manipur's best towns and wherever else power is supplied.

It is, therefore, insisted upon that the names of the unknown tribal man, woman and child, their sex, age, parentage, occupation, address before and after dam, individual and family photographs (in front of their pre-submerged humble homely huts that never needed doors with locks and windows with iron bars) etc. ... all these details must be made known and put on the net ... in the public domain ... and hence, in that sense, an indelible identification.

Undoubtedly, this shall contrast sharply with the prevailing system of filing names / claimants ... in files that get lost, or get thicker, as the years pass and as Ministers and DCs change. Also, lets face it: if the areas to be submerged had land holdings of retired supreme court judges and lawyers, the ancestral homes of a central cabinet secretary and a serving general/admiral or two; the farmlands a couple of IAS/IPS officers, plots or homes of fifty professors/lecturers and one thousand college students ... and the dam was really needed, the government and NEEPCO (just an example) would have bent backwards along with the moon and several stars on the socio-eco-psycho-emo-ego-medico-lego-etc etc platter. This writer isn't joking because package would never do! It is to this that the IIPDAP leads, below.

2. Stakeholders: This rider, though listed second, is the most important one because it upholds the highest of long-term concerns for the welfare of the IIPDAP, history's small man. It is hereby suggested that the dam-affected tribal man, woman and child – the IIPDAP – must be made a stake-holder in the Project ... in his dam, because the Company that makes the dam and supplies electricity, and other facilities, levies charges/fees and makes a profit.

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