GUWAHATI: The All Assam Shramik Krishak Kalyan Parishad (AASKKP) has decried the role of the State Government and the police in the atrocities being meted out on anti-dam protesters at Lakhimpur and Dhemaji district. In a meeting of the central executive committee of the workers’ body held in Guwahati today, the alleged police atrocities on the anti-dam protesters was strongly condemned.

Guwahati: The Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), a powerful and well known farmers’ body in Assam, on Tuesday accused the Congress government in the state of taking away “space” for democratic protests and warned this will only help forces like the Maoists to grow.

Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti general secretary and anti-dam activist Akhil Gogoi said here that the Maoists would take over the whole of Assam and dominate the state with their power if Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and his government deprived the common people of the space for democratic movement and protests.

GUWAHATI/NORTH LAKHIMPUR: The anti-big dam groups like the KMSS, Asom Jatiyatabadi Tuva Chattra Parishad, All Assam Deuri Students’ Union, TMPK and others have said that they would continue their protests against the Lower Subansiri Project on the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border.

Addressing the reporters jointly on Sunday, the members of the agitating groups, including KMSS general secretary Akhil Gogoi said that the anti-big dam groups would continue to block the transportation of construction materials to the Lower Subansiri Project site.

GUWAHATI: The protest against the big dam in the State started by the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samity (KMSS) would continue in the days to some. This was stated by the KMSS.

Secretary of the peasant body Bedanta Laskar said that the protest of the KMSS against the Lower Subansiri Project would continue till the State Government scraps it and also informed that a cycle rally was launched at the Simenmukh Sangkhum playground in Dhemaji, which would end at the Gai river in the district.

Acute shortfall of rain during the last few months has hit hard the small tea growers in the districts of Sonitpur, Lakhimpur and Dhemaji in Northern Assam.

The embattled National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) today displayed signs of flexibility to help resolve the crisis plaguing the 2,000MW Lower Subansiri hydel project at Gerukamukh in Dhemaji district on the Assam- Arunachal Pradesh border. After back-to-back meetings with Assam power minister Pradyut Bordoloi-headed group of ministers (GoM) and then with chief minister Tarun Gogoi, NHPC chairman and managing director (CMD) A.B.L.

NHPC officials claimed that today’s discussion was an informal one. How can they say that a burning issue like the Lower Subansiri project can be informally discussed? The outcomes of talks on this issue should always be made public. The NHPC must change its attitude. Otherwise, we’ll intensify our current anti-mega dam agitation all over the State — Akhil Gogoi

Guwahati, Jan. 6: The Assam government may be caught in a Catch-22 situation over the anti-dam lobby’s sustained demand to stop work on the Lower Subansiri hydel project, but will not hesitate to crack the whip to maintain order. A government official today said, “We will, however, not crawl. Necessary instructions have been issued to check law-and-order issues,” when asked about Dispur’s response to Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti’s (KMSS) vow to continue the blockade till the experts’ reports came in.

GUWAHATI: After they had succeeded in bringing the construction at the NHPC’s 2000 MW Lower Subansiri Hydro-electric Project at Gerukamukh in Dhemaji district of Assam, the anti-dam brigade comprising several organisations were on Thursday called for negotiation by Assam government in Guwahati.

The anti-dam agitation has brought the construction to a grinding halt at the National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) at Gerukamukh in since last month by blocking transportation of construction materials, and turbine parts to the dam site.