Observance Of International Rivers Day Kick Starts
Mass rally staged against Chakpi project
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, March 12 2013: Along with kick-starting observance of International Rivers Day which would continue for a week, a mass protest rally was taken out today at Chakpikarong, Chandel district against Chakpi Multipurpose Project.

Before the protest rally, a public meeting was held at Chakpikarong sub-divisional headquarters under the aegis of Committee Against Construction of Chakpi Multipurpose Project, Partner Villages Development Forum and Chakpi Area Chiefs Association.

Most of the speakers who addressed the meeting expressed strong objection against the proposed Chakpi Project.

The meeting later resolved that the Government should not construct any dam across Chakpi river against the wishes of the people.

The main reasons highlighted in support of this resolution was that the project is anti-people in nature and the huge investment it entails is not in the interest of the indigenous people of Chandel.

Anti-Chakpi project mass protest rally

Small tribes settled around the proposed project area like Tarao with a population of about 800, Moyon and Monsang tribes with population below 3000, Lamkang below 10,000 and Anals with a population of about 25,000 would be adversely affected by the project.

The speakers asserted that the initial investigation, survey and proposal were done without the knowledge and consent of the people.

Apart of inundating several hectares of agricultural land, rich flora and fauna which have not been properly assessed yet would be destroyed.

Quoting a Government report that around 26,054 labourers would be engaged in the project, the speakers warned that the huge number of labourers would threaten identity and existence of the local indigenous people.

The project would affect rich ancestral land handed down from generations comprising of catchment areas, submerged areas, canal areas, dam site and land use for colonies, roads, mining, borrowed sites, transmission lines.

Such irreversible environmental devastation and multiple impacts on land and people would destroy indigenous people socially, politically and economically.

They further condemned the design of the Government to pursue the project in clandestine manner without free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous people.

By doing so, the Government was committing blatant violation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous People., they alleged as well as the recommendations of the World Commission on Dams.

The public meeting cum protest was attended by International Rivers Network, South Asia Director Sameer, Naga Women Union Manipur president Aram Pamei, CCDD convenor Dr RK Ranjan and many other scholars and resource persons.

Addressing the gathering, co-convenor of the Committee on Protection of Natural Resources Jiten Yumnam said that the International Rivers Day is usually observed on March 14 .

Comparing river systems to the human nervous system, Sameer dams and barrage cause the same affect just as a blocked nerve causes to the human body.

He said that the anti-dam movement of Chakpikarong would be uploaded in their website and brought to the knowledge of international community.

Starting from Chakpikarong community hall, the protesters marched on the left bank of Chakpi river.

They carried banners and placards which read "Let Chakpi river flow free", "We say no to Chakpi dam" etc.

The protesters marched up to the site where the proposed dam would be constructed.

There, they shouted slogans in denunciation of the project .

Then they crossed the river and marched back to the starting along the right bank.