Imphal, March 20: A host of peoples' movement and civil organisations and human rights groups would be organising a series of Peoples Hearings on Tipaimukh Dam on March 25 and 26 at Nungba Headquarters and Keimai village in Tamenglong district.

According to a statement jointly issued by Action Committee Against Tipaimukh Dam, Citizens Concern for Dams and Development (CCDD) and Committee Against Tipaimukh Dam (CATD), which are supporting these proposed public hearings and rallies, the public hearing scheduled at Nungba and Keimai villages respectively on March 25 and 26 would be hosted by the Zeliangrong Students' Union, Manipur (ZSUM) and the Nungba Area Village Authority Association (NAVAA).

The joint statement said that the peoples hearings on Tipaimukh Dam are being organised in the light of the announcement by the Manipur Pollution Control Board (MPCB) to hold two public hearings on March 26 and March 31 at Keimai village in Tamenglong district and at Tipaimukh Dam site (as per MPCB notification).

The MPCB is trying to hold the public hearings despite the fact that the villagers affected by the proposed Tipaimukh Project in Tamenglong, Churachandpur, Senapati and Imphal in upstream portion of the Barak river in Manipur and those in downstream portion of the river in the Barak valley Assam and Bangladesh have consistently call for a free prior and informed consent in decision making for Tipaimukh Project and also calling for stopping all process for construction of the dam till detailed impact assessment of the projects are fully assessed with the affected people.

The proposed mega dam will permanently compromise our ancestral land, forest, territories, river, water which are our enduring sources of livelihood, sustenance, common heritage sites.

According to the proposal, 9228.56 sq km (i.e.77 percent) out of 12,232 sq km of Churachandpur, Senapati and Tamenglong districts will be submerged under water.

The public hearings held at Deputy Commissioners' chambers of Churachandpur and Tamenglong on November 17 and 22 last year have been rejected by the affected people of Manipur due to manipulation and fraud by the project authorities in collaboration with the Government of Manipur.

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