“The project will affect the people of the village which is having a total of 200 households with over 1000 population,” an elder of the village Jopborstarsing Sohtun told reporters at a news conference here on Thursday.
The North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPC) had signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Meghalaya government for execution of the 85 MW Mawphu project at a cost of Rs 453.81 crore on April 20, 2012.
This was after the No Objection Certificate was issued by the Syiem of Sohra and the acting headman of the village to the NEEPCO on August 12, 2011, which was alleged done without the consent of the people of the village.
It may be mentioned here that the foundations stone for theMawphu project and the NEEPCO residential complex was laid by the Union Power Minister M Veerappa Moily in 2012.
The project was targeted to be completed within four-and-a-half years from the date of construction.
Sohtun said as per information sought through Right to Information Act, 2005, it was informed that the total area required for implementation of the project is 110 hectares.
Of this, 93.90 hectares of land falls under the Thieddieng village while only 13 hectares in Mawphu village.
“No doubt the implementation of this project will lead to submerging of our cultivable land, which majority of us is depending on agriculture for our livelihood,” he said.
Stating the land was also classified as forest land (22 hectares) and private land (88 hectares), the village elder however said, “But we don’t have forest land belonging to the government but the land are those which people are cultivating pepper, betel leaves, betel nuts, broomstick, orchards and others.”
Referring to the agreement, he said that around 74 houses will be affected with the coming of the project and the NEEPCO has agreed to pay rehabilitation of Rs 25,000 per family and Rs 2000 each per month for over 20 years.
Another resident of the village, Westilborn Synjoin said, “We are not ready to be refugees and allow outsiders to come and take over our land. Therefore we will not give even an inch of our land for implementing the project.”
She said that the people have also expressed their strong reservation against the project during a public hearing held in the village on May 16.
Asked, Sohtun said that the people of the village were never part of the decision to allow the project as it was done secretly by the Syiem of Hima Sohra and the acting headman Mathias Syiemlieh.
He said the Syiem had also issued an order on April 24, 2012 directing the acting headman to facilitate the officials of the NEEPCO for conducting a survey at Thieddieng.
“They have bulldozed the voice of the people,” he said while informing that the matter was also taken up with the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) for its intervention.
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