The NGO, Rural Litigation and Entitlement, demanded that the work on the state-owned Palamaneri(480 MW), Baironghati (381 MW) and the Centre-owned Lohari Nagpala (600 MW) hydro- power projects should be started immediately as hundreds of villages there will get electricity.
The projects were stopped after environmentalists claimed that the course of Ganga was getting diverted due to the construction work.
"Hundreds of villages in Uttarakhand are yet to see an electric pole. There is no logic in stalling these hydro-power projects.
"I am ready to surrender my Padma Shri if government continues to be averse to the re-opening of the hydro-power projects," Avdhash Kaushal, president of the NGO, told reporters.
Women from various parts of Uttarakhand who attended the press meet claimed they still rely on the primitive method of lighting fire by rubbing two stones together as electricity remains a distant dream in hundreds of villages.
"We have to walk three to four kilometres to recharge the batteries of our cellphones. Our children find it hard to study without electricity," Leela, a woman from Fatehparbat village in Uttar Kashi district, said.
The NGO said more than 10,000 small and large scale industries in Uttarakhand are on the verge of closure because of lack of power supply.
