Itanagar: Protests intensified at Begging village in Arunachal Pradesh‘s Siang district, on Saturday as local residents and the Siang Indigenous Farmers’ Forum (SIFF) continued their demonstration against pre-feasibility survey work for the proposed 11,000 MW Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP).
Villagers have set up a camp about one km from Begging village, near the survey site, to prevent further activity. SIFF executive members and youth wing representatives plan to maintain a daily vigil until survey equipment is removed.
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No CAPF (Central Armed Police Forces) personnel are being allowed into the area. SIFF representatives have stated they will continue their sit-in protest until their demands are met.
Tasong Jamoh, president of the SIFF Riew village unit, said, “I don’t want to lose my land, so I am protesting again and again to protect it. During the election, the government promised that no survey for the dam would be conducted without our consent. But now they are forcibly trying to carry out the survey without informing or consulting with us.”
He reiterated that they “will not move from the camp until our demands are met.”
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On Friday, SIFF issued a three-day ultimatum to the Siang district deputy commissioner. Their demands include the immediate removal of CAPF personnel from Siang, Upper Siang, and East Siang districts, the withdrawal of drilling machines from the Begging survey site, and an assurance that no further forceful activities related to the PFR (pre-feasibility report) will be carried out without the free, prior, and informed consent of local communities.
Arunachal Pradesh Rural Development Minister and Pangin MLA Ojing Tasing, however, characterized the SIFF protest as being led by “a minority of the people” who are “not even from Siang but from Dibang Valley district.”
He suggested that “some people do not want any development for the sake of opposition,” emphasizing that dam construction serves not only power generation but also security, referencing China’s 60,000 MW hydropower dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) River.
Tasing claimed that “the majority of the population in Siang are pro-dam and only 20-30 percent of the population are protesting against the dam.”
Nalong Mize, an interlocutor between the government and the SUMP-affected people, focused on the importance of maintaining an open “channel of dialogue with the dam-affected people and the government.”
Regarding an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) signed between Pangkang-Kumku village and the Arunachal Pradesh government, Mize stated he had only visited the village during public meetings.
He confirmed that 45 out of 54 households in Pangkang-Kumku village have signed the MoU, but he did not comment on how many other villagers are expected to sign MoUs to allow survey work for the PFR.