"The project developers must satisfy the local people and no projects should be taken up where local people and stakeholders are opposed to it," state Chief Secretary Sudripta Roy said at a symposium on 'Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development in Hydro sector' organised by Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN).
The Renuka Dam project, one of the largest projects in Himachal Pradesh's Sirmour district, is expected to address the drinking water requirements of National Capital Region.
Roy said the World Bank would soon sanction a Rs 1,000 crore sanction for various agro-based, hydro-power, tourism and industrial projects, but these projects should be sustainable and environmentally safe.
"Any project detrimental to the interests of the people should be avoided," he added.
Roy asked the corporate sector to combine its CSR with philanthropy. "If PSUs and corporate houses spend two to three per cent of their profit on social development, it will make no difference (to their profit)," he said.
In his key note address, Prof Prem Vrat, Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Eminence, ITM University, Gurgaon, said 75 per cent of hydro-power potential of the country was still lying unexplored.
Stressing the need for creating long term impact on the society by adopting various measures of empowering the people, he said if the neighbourhood is left devoid of development, sustaining business may become all the more difficult.
"Therefore, sustaining the society around the projects would be in the interest of the corporates...," he said.
