PANCHESHWAR: The Pancheshwar Multipurpose Development Project is the biggest joint project of the Mahakali Treaty, signed between India and Nepal in 1996. However, the proposed dam will submerge 134 villages in Pithoragarh and Champawat districts that border Nepal and Almora.
Around 30,000 families from three
Uttarakhand
districts will be the worst hit. Of the 134 villages, 123 will be rehabilitated. Villagers, fearing displacement, have started protesting and have burnt copies of the Detailed Project Report (DRP) that was recently made public.
Residents of the affected villages have formed a protest forum to give voice to their movement against the Pancheshwar dam, which is being constructed at Rs 40,000 crore. A resident of
Jhulaghat Viplab Bhatt
said, “Rehabilitating villagers is not the solution. How will they earn a livelihood after rehabilitation?”
Padam Singh, the gram pradhan of
Draulisera
village, said, “No survey was conducted for rehabilitation of the families. No one from the government or Pancheshwar dam authority visited our village. This DPR is based on a survey that was conducted 30 years back. Land rates were very less then.”
Villagers also submitted a memorandum to the district magistrate and asked for public hearings first and then DPRs.
However, both India and Nepal consider the project a boon.
But local residents do not consider the dam a good fortune. “Public hearings are just formalities and most things have already been decided. The common people were not taken into confidence before announcing the project,” an activist said.
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