Imphal, February 03 2010: The Sinlung Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Organisation (SIPHRO) has come out with the findings of a Social Audit on Tipaimukh Dam project conducted over months last year in Assam, Manipur and Mizoram.

According to a press release of SIPHRO, this is the first pioneering work that thoroughly studied the possible adverse impact the Tipaimukh Multipurpose Hydro-Electric Project would have on the sensitive and vulnerable indigenous peoples as well as on their social, cultural, economic, political, demographic and environment prospect in three States.

As part of the Social Audit, SIPHRO conducted public meeting, public hearing, discussion, debate, seminar, press conference, and photo exhibitions in different villages, towns and districts in the three States.

The involved people acknowledged that the SIPHRO initiated programme was the first ever platform where they get to understand the "developmental interest" hidden behind the leviathan project.

They also acknowledged that it was the first time that they got to evolve their consent, which will help them to define their stand, continued the release.

Some of the highlights of the findings of the Social Audit project are: that the democratic process for delivering "free, prior and informed consent" was totally absent, the indigenous river peoples in Assam, Manipur and Assam belongs to the most deprived groups, who are still untouched by welfare, development, infrastructure and education, the two public hearings that were held in Darlawn (Mizoram) and Sipuikawn (Manipur) were flawed and were merely "ceremonial contacts", there is no identification of the people who would be affected by the project, Monetary compensation was employed by the dam builders to win the consent and approval of the indigenous peoples in the pursuit of building the dam, there is a strong politician-bureaucrat nexus that is working towards securing monetary compensation in the name of the indigenous peoples, nothing about the proposed project is transparent or made accessible for the public, there is no assessment of the legal status of the indigenous peoples as reflected in the Country's constitution and legislation and that the adverse social impact of the Tipaimukh Multipurpose HEP, whether short term or cumulative, have been seriously under-estimated, among others.

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