The All Idu Mishmi Students Union (AIMSU) has called for a boycott of the second public hearing for the 3000 MW Dibang Multipurpose project to be held in New Anaya, Dibang Valley district, Arunachal Pradesh on March 12. The Dibang project was in the news recently when the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, laid the foundation stone for the project, during his visit to Arunachal Pradesh on January 30.
This move had shocked local communities and environmentalists as the mandatory public consultation process is yet to be completed and the project has not yet been examined by the Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF) and its expert committees for its environmental and social viability.
AIMSU has decided to oppose all 'cosmetic' public hearings, merely held to complete procedural requirements rather than genuinely hear the concerns of people.
The Prime Minister, who is currently holding the Environment and Forests portfolio, laid the foundation stone for the project one day after the first public hearing held in Roing, Lower Dibang Valley district, in which many local persons of the Idu Mishmi and other tribal communities had strongly opposed the construction of the 288-metre high dam due to its potentially serious social and environmental impacts.
Even as the Prime Minister acknowledges the ongoing tiger crisis in the national media, he is simultaneously pushing a project which will submerge tracts of tiger habitat in the Dibang Valley in the Northeast, AIMSU says.
Gandhian remedy
Medical camps are being held nationwide as a unique way to protest against the arrest of health and human rights activist Dr Binayak Sen. He was jailed in May last year for alleged links with Maoists in Chhattisgarh.
It will also take forward Dr Sen's innovative public health work to new areas and highlight the issues of nutrition, child health and the link between socio-economic rights and health.
Camps are planned in Delhi, Chennai, Coimbatore, Bangalore and Kolkata in March and next month in Hyderabad, Bhopal, Lucknow, Calicut and Alleppey.
Mentorship project
Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust, an NGO nurtured by the Confederation of Indian Industries, will launch the chapter of its mentorship programme for the northern region this week.
Chapters are group of mentors working together to achieve the objective of enterprise creation and fostering entrepreneurship within their local communities. The mentors are accredited by City & Guilds, UK's largest and best-known vocational awarding body.
Fortified food
Around 15 MPs and representative from the dairy industry took part in a discussion on initiatives to tackle malnutrition at a conference organised by the NGO GAIN (Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition ) in Delhi this week.
The meeting is the first in a series on initiatives by GAIN to end malnutrition with special focus on food fortification.
MP Rajesh Pilot and MS Swaminathan spoke in favour of fortifying milk with Vitamin A , Manvendra Singh called for inclusion of millet in public distribution system while Ravi Shankar Prasad asked for public debate on the matter.
