Guwahati: Assam’s farmer leader and anti-dam activist Akhil Gogoi has decided to start an indefinite hunger-strike here from Sunday to pressurize the state government to stop what he alleged were atrocities on anti-dam activists in Lakhimpur district.

Akhil Gogoi’s Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) and several other organisations have been preventing the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) from carrying construction materials to the lower Subansiri Hydroelectric Power (LSHP) project site in the district since December 26, 2011.

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: 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.

Noted environmentalist Medha Patkar today declared that the water of river Subansiri belonged to the people living in its catchment areas and not to the corporate players and added that the movement against the dam on the Subansiri river was same as the Narmada Bachao Movement. She made these comments while addressing a mammoth public meeting near the Subansiri bridge at Thekeraguri in Lakhimpur organized by KMSS and other organizations which are opposing the construction of a mega dam over the Subansiri river at Gerukamukh by NHPC.

NORTH LAKHIMPUR, Feb 17 – The Krishak Mukti Sangaram Samiti (KMSS) today accused the Group of Ministers of betraying the wishes of the people of Assam by agreeing to continue the construction of the mega dam over Subansiri river in Gerukamukh as demanded by the National Hydro-electrical Power Corporation (NHPC). This was stated by KMSS secretary Akhil Gogoi in a press conference held on the road blockade side off National Highway-52 at Ghagar Nagar, 30 km east of North Lakhimpur.

GUWAHATI, Feb 12 – The protestors of the mega dams would sit for a discussion with the NHPC authorities tomorrow at 9.30 am in Guwahati. In a statement, the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), said that the NHPC authorities offered to hold discussion due to the ongoing protest against the Lower Subansiri hydro-electricity project by various organizations and the common people of Dhemaji and Lakhimpur.

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.

- Dispur invites KMSS and other organisations for discussions tomorrow
Guwahati, Jan. 3: Dispur this evening formally invited the anti-dam groups for talks on January 5 while issuing a separate public appeal asking them to withdraw their blockade of supplies to the Lower Subansiri hydel project, in a bid to end the standoff that began on December 16. CMO sources said home secretary G.D. Tripathi this evening issued the formal letters to Lakhimpur-based groups through the district administration and to the Guwahati-based organisations through the special branch of the police.