The Centre has decided to form an eight-member committee to review all problematic areas of the under-construction Lower Subansiri Hydroelectric Power Project (LSHEP) along the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border.
The decision was taken at a meeting of Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal, All Assam Students' Union (AASU) and 25 other organisations in New Delhi on December 11, AASU Adviser Dr Samujjal Bhattacharya told reporters here today.
Four members of the committee would be from Assam and the rest from outside the state to sort out the problems in the areas where construction work was stopped for about three years ago due to protests, he said.
"We presented before Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal many environmental and socio-economic problems downstream", he said.
"The big dam (project) is not a political issue. We submitted our demands and concerns with scientific evidence of the possible problems of the dam being constructed in a seismologically sensitive site", he said.
The opinions of experts and apprehensions of agitators against the 2,000 MW project were presented before the minister, he said.
"We are not against development. But the interest of the indigenous people of Assam has to be protected", the AASU leader said.
"We objected in 2006 when the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) has started the project at Gerukamukh in Assam without a proper scientific study", he said.
