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Memo Against Saptakoshi Hydropower Dam
By KTM Metro Reporter
June 18, 2010: A team of UCPN-Maoist Sunsari district cadres led by the District Chef has submitted a memorandum to Chief District Officer of the Sunsari District for forwarding it to the Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanding immediate stopping the ongoing survey work for preparing a Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the Saptakosi Multipurpose High Dam Project. The project is generating 3,300 MW power and irrigating thousands of agricultural land in the neighboring state of India and controlling flash floods during the monsoon period.
Opponents of the high dam say that more than 83 villages and agricultural land will go under the water blocked up by the dam of 269 meters high, and 100,000 Nepalis would be homeless. They say that in addition, most of the benefits go to the neighboring Indian state; so it is not in the interest of Nepalis.
The survey has been going on despite the opposition of the people that will suffer the most from the construction of such a high dam. India has been eying on this project fro quite some time but none of the previous governments has favored such a multi-purpose power dam in the past. The current Madhav government has favored India to conduct surveys for preparing DPR.
In the past whenever Nepal passed through political instability and weak governments were in power, India had signed such mega projects that had favored India more than Nepal. So, this time, too, India is attempting to repeat the history of taking the benefits of the weak government in Nepal working with the Madhav government for taking up the Saptakoshi multi-purpose project.
