Villagers threaten to shut down Alaknanda hydel project over compensation

DEHRADUN

: As many as 6,000

villagers

will lay siege to a hydroelectricity power plant built on

Alaknanda River

in Pauri district from Wednesday morning, claiming that most them were not given compensation for their lands which were acquired about ten years ago to construct the plant.

Villagers, mostly from Srinagar area of Pauri where the plant is built, are alleging that their lands were acquired by a private firm but the compensation and rehabilitation, which was promised to them, never happened.

The 330MV Alaknanda hydroelectricity power project, which falls in

Tehri

and Pauri districts, started operation in the year 2006.

Daulat Kunwar, who is leading the agitation, claimed that around 6,000 villagers will participate in the Wednesday’s shutdown of the plant.

“We will not end the protest until the administration and the firm pay the compensation money and rehabilitates us,” he said.

Meanwhile, the district administration said that a survey is on to establish the claims of the farmers.

Tehri’s district magistrate (DM) Sonika said the registration process is on and the villagers who have not been paid the compensation are being identified.

“I held a meeting with the DM of Pauri on July 27 and initiated the registration process. It will be finished in a week. After that, the company will be asked to pay the compensation,” Sonika said.

Nupur Verma, SDM of the area said that the administration has information of about around 400 people participating in the shutdown. “We have called extra police force to handle the situation,” she said.

Demanding compensation, the villagers had staged a protest in Dehradun last week. After that, a meeting was called between the firm, state’s power secretary, DMs and MLAs from the area. Later, the company was asked to pay the compensation.

Kunwar said, “First we were not even called in the meeting and then the government did not set any time limit for the payment and rehabilitation. We had announced that we will wait till July 31. But, neither the administration nor the company took us seriously. We were left with no choice but to launch a stir.”