SHILLONG, JULY 13: Women from Thieddieng village, who are presently residing in Shillong, today expressed their strong support for the construction of the Mawphu hydel project-stage II to be executed by the North Eastern Electric Corporation (NEEPCO) over Kongkhen river.
“We strongly support the proposed construction of the power project as it will bring development to four villages – Thieddieng, Mawphu, Nongstung and Umblai – which were neglected for past several year,” one of the women, Kmitsiton Suna told reporters here.
Suna, who also claimed to be one among the land owners, said that as per the NEEPCO’s executive summary, an amount of Rs 1400 lakh has been earmarked for payment of land compensation to the affected land owners.
In term of jobs, she said that 80 per cent job reservation have been kept for the local people from the four villages besides contract works during and after construction of the project.
“NEEPCO has also agreed upon to give Rs 25,000 each household of these villages as one time gift for parting their land besides Rs 2000 monthly payment till the end of twenty year,” she added.
Suna also said that the women are also supporting the Joint Action Committee (JAC) under the chairmanship of James M A Neng, which is demanding the authorities to rename the project to Kongkhen hydel power project since Mawphu is a name of a village.
Another woman from the same village, Gloria Malniang said, “We urged the NEEPCO to speed up the construction of the power project and also accordingly implement the various developmental activities in the areas of these villages.”
She also appeals to the NEEPCO to start the construction of the road leading to Thieddieng village, which was left in a kutcha condition for the past many years.
The other benefits according to her is that the NEEPCO as per the agreement signed with the state government has agreed to provide 100 unit power free to all affected villages besides 1 percent free for local area development.
Malniang also termed the recent claims made by the anti-project group led by Jopborstarsing Sohtun that the huge chunk of land under the Thieddieng village will submerged if the project is allowed to be implemented thereby anticipating that many will forced to become refugees as “misleading”.
As per the Project Report, NEEPCO required around 110 hectare of land for developing Mawphu Hydro Power project to be able to make it commission within fifty five months, if things goes well. Out of this, 93.90 hectares of land alone falls under Thieddieng village while only 13 hectares are in other villages.
Condemning Sohtun and his group for trying to mislead the people on the project, she said, “Their claim is just the opposite of the clause in the executive summary of the NEEPCO which clearly stated that there will not be a single family who will have to leave the village due to the project as the village is about 2 km away from the river.”
On the other hand, Suna said that during the public hearings held in May this year, officials of NEEPCO had categorically stated that there will be no submerging as the dam to be constructed is very small. “It will affect only small portion of lands”, she claimed.
Both the women also claimed that there were no houses within the 110 hectares of land. According to them, the land to be acquired by the NEEPCO is also barren land which is not fit for cultivation activities.
Earlier while opposing the project, Jopborstarsing Sohtun had reasoned that 88 ha were privately owned lands and only 22 ha have been classified as forest land.
“The lands here are those in which people are cultivating pepper, betel leaves, betel nuts, broomstick, orchards and others. The implementation of the project will lead to submerging of our cultivable land, which majority of us is depending on agriculture for our livelihood,” he said.
Another vociferous woman from Thieddieng, Westilborn Synjoin, said, “We are not ready to be refugees and allow outsiders to come and take over our land. We will not give even an inch of our land for implementing the project.”
She informed that there were more people who are oppose to the project during a public hearing held in the village on May 16 last.
NEEPCO 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 following which the foundations stone for the project was laid by the then Union Power Minister M Veerappa Moily in the same year.
The project was targeted to be completed within four-and-a-half years from the date of construction.
However, as per the project report till August 2016, the total project cost is Rs.907.35 crore which might increase based on prevailing market situation.
The Mawphu Hydro Power Project will generate 85 megawatt from 42.5 units each of two units.
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