Press Note: 6 Dec 2019 | Villagers rise against Luhri II hydropower project: Reject half-baked Social Impact Assessment report at Public Hearing

Residents of village Nanj of Karsog Tehsil, gathered at the Public hearing for SJVNL’s 172 megawatt Luhri II hydropower project at the local patwarkhana, termed the program a farce and outrightly rejected the Social Impact Assessment report prepared as part of the rules preceding the land acquisition process. The villagers alleged that they were not given sufficient notice and complete information about the dam project prior to the Public Hearing. A copy of the report was not made available to the public representatives like the Zilla Panchayat members even. Residents of the affected area of the proposed project added that the SIA report made by 2 private consultants did not have any details about the impact of the project, was sketchy and half baked. Angered by the damage to houses caused due to landslides during the survey work for the project, the villagers said that the area was fragile and not suitable for this kind of mega construction which involves dynamiting.

The Luhri II is one of the three projects being built on the last free following stretch of the Sutlej river between Rampur and Kol Dams, the other two being Sunni Dam and Luhri 1 project. A total of 174.35 hectares of land is required for the Luhri II project alone of which about 150 hectares is forest land and the rest private agricultural land. The 1741.65 crore project is going to impact 8 villages and submerge 119.79 hectares of land spread across 7.5 kms. The project involves construction of an underground power house and tunnel as well.

Resident of Nanj, an organic farmer and social activist Nek Ram Sharma while submitting his objection to the panel, comprising of officials of the district administration, said that people of the area including several Gujjar pastoral families, had their community rights over the 150 hectares of forest land and that the rights were not yet recognised under the Forest Rights Act 2006. Zilla Parishad Member Shyam Singh Chauhan said that the SIA was nothing but a bunch of lies creating the false picture that the affected area had unemployment and no source of water and that agriculture was not so beneficial where as the truth is the opposite. The area is known for its forest conservation initiatives as well as farm produce. He said that any impact assessment should be conducted in consultation with the affected communities and such an inadequate report will just not do. The same was also raised by the Uppradhan Shri Tejender of Nanj Panchayat who submitted that this Public Hearing be stalled as it did not follow due process.

Chairperson of the Public Hearing Panel, SDM Karsog, Surendra Thakur recorded that the SIA report had several shortcomings as submitted and assured the people that the report would be sent to the central authorities only after it was revised and all inputs of the local people incorporated. He also conveyed that there will be no attempt to acquire land by force for the project.

The women of the affected area sloganeered outside the Public Hearing pandal asserting that their livelihood and life was dependent on land and forests and that the project would spell doom for their community and that they would oppose the project no matter what.

Apart from the SDM, the hearing was attended by Land Acquisition officer Op Negi, MJ Nandlal of SJVNL, AGM Akshay Acharya and DGM Rajendra Sachdev. These other members did not respond to the objections raised.

The community representatives, apart from the gathering of locals, had ex Pradhan Nanj Rooplal, resident and activist NekRam Sharma, Zilla Parishad member Shyam Singh Chauhan, Bashir Mohammad, Praveen and others. The Social Impact Assessment is carried out for large projects involving land acquisition as part of the Himachal Pradesh Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Social Impact Assessment and Consent) Rules, 2015. The process is separate from the Environment Impact Assessment Public Hearing which is still pending for this project.

News coverage