Declare recent MoU on Tipaimukh Dam as null, invalid and void
- SIPHRO (Sinlung Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Organisation) -

10 May 2010

siphro
SINLUNG INDIGENOUS PEOPLES HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANISATION
Truth, Justice and Peace
Website: www.siphro.org
Email: [email protected]

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the Government of Manipur with the National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) and Shimla-based Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (SJVN) on April 28, 2010 at Faridabad, for building the controversial 1500 MW Tipaimukh Hydroelectric (Multipurpose) Project is without the prior, informed consent and approval of the Sinlung-originated Hmar indigenous peoples who has been peacefully co-existing with river Tuiruong and Tuivai since time immemorial. The MoU is without the understanding of the Hmar people who are living in the proposed dam site in Tipaimukh and Vangai Hills (Manipur), Sinlung Hills (Mizoram) which will be part of the upperstream as well as downstream and Barak Valley (Assam) in the downstream.

When the new agreement, which will be a joint venture between NHPC (69 per cent), Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (SJVN) (26 per cent) and Manipur Government (5 per cent), was made, the threatened Hmar indigenous people's citizenship and democratic rights , land, rivers, forest, natural resources and entitlement were not assessed, identified or mentioned. The MoU is unconstitutional, discriminating, unjust, and undemocratic.

NHPC's track record with hydro-power is alarmingly poor in all the important aspects. If one looks at NHPC's performance, in case of Indira Sagar and Omkareshwar in Madhya Pradesh, Chamera I and II projects in HimachalPradesh, Loktak project in Manipur, Koel Karo project in Jharkhand, Lower Subansiri project in Arunachal Pradesh, Teesta Low Dam stage III project in North Bengal, Salal and Uri projects in Jammu and Kashmir, Dul Hasti project in Jammu and Kashmir, Baira Saul project in Himachal Pradesh and Tanakpur and Dhauliganga projects in Uttaranchal, Rangit project in Sikkim, it is evident that NHPC severely failed in good practices, creating irresponsible disaster to land, people and resources, displacing people without proper relief, rehabilitation and resettlement measures, violating human rights, huge cost and time overruns, causing construction related disaster, poor social and environmental standards.

In many cases NHPC did not even have an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Social Impact Assessment of its projects. Worst, NHPC have also, in many cases, failed to avail free, prior information for the affected people. Many a times, NHPC doggedly pursue its projects without informing the targeted people about public hearings. In short, NHPC has been involved in severe violations of current Indian environment norms and manipulating environmental impact assessments. NHPC should rather be responsible for the gross unpardonable destruction that it has caused to lives, rights and environment and focus on good practices instead of toying with bigger project that will create bigger destruction and tragedy.

Similarly, with a poor and failed record of implementing policies on dams and any development projects, breakdown of law and order and governance, the Government of Manipur does not qualify to be one of the implementing agencies by playing with the lives of its citizens, forests, rivers, and rights in the name of development. When the Government of Manipur is incapable of reforming its governance, law and order, it should rather review its existing practices with development projects before taking up the Tipaimukh Dam.

The Government of Manipur should not exploit the strength of its militarized State to built Tipaimukh Dam. We cannot bear to afford militarization taking over the destructive project. The Government of Manipur should not conveniently exploit the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) to pursue the controversial project. There can be no compensation for the social, human, security and environmental cost and crisis that it will create.

The recently signed MoU was a document for mass destruction. It is not acceptable. It cannot be a license for mindless and inhumane plundering activities. Although river Tuiruong and Tuivai, the proposed damned rivers for Tipaimukh Dam, which was indiscriminately used as political boundary, divides our people in different States, our diverse cultural, social, political, environmental realities and struggles are one and the same.

We shall not allow the foreign implementing agencies to invade and plunder our rivers, land and natural resources and devastate our people for their selfish profit driven interests. We cannot accept that the Dam will be a solution to the severe deprivation and marginalization. After many years of the withdrawal of the Government of Manipur from Tipaimukh constituency, the State actors has been projecting the Tipaimukh Multipurpose HEP as the vehicle to redress the social, economic, and political exclusion and injustice to the development and governance deprived people of the region.

However, the same process that was inculcated to win the people is stained with corruption, inefficiency and lack of legitimacy that only represents a narrow, biased and one sided view and interpretation of the leviathan project. The adopted biased approach aggravated by biased information has severely precluded informed participation of the threatened communities. The deliberated injustice should not be allowed to continue.

The recent MoU itself was another corruption that was covertly signed behind closed doors by negating the existence of the Hmar people and their democratic and citizenship rights. Despite the MoU, there is no defined, prior informed ground rules, terms and conditions for the engagement of the implementing agencies. The MoU is a blind adventure and unrealistically optimistic assumptions of "profit" and "development" by ignoring the imposed devastation and injustice that it will cause to the threatened communities and their peaceful and stable livelihood system and life-giving forest and rivers.

The implementing agencies severely failed to assess and account the direct and indirect costs of negative and adverse environmental and social impacts that the dam will cause. The MoU is an injury, discrimination and suppression to the democratic and citizenship rights of the Hmar people for which the implementing agencies should immediately tender an apology.

The MoU is without the knowledge, consent, confidence, and approval of the Hmar people, the biggest stakeholder, in whose land and rivers the dam will be built. In the interest of the forgotten Hmar peoples and other affected communities, Sinlung Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Organisation (SIPHRO) demands that:

1. The implementing agencies immediately and comprehensively adopt the recommendations of the World Commission on Dams (WCD) and integrate them into their relevant policies, particularly as recommended by the WCD, no project should proceed without the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples, and without the demonstrable public acceptance of all those who would be affected by the project.

2. The Government of Manipur and its colluding partners immediately declare the recent MoU as null, invalid and void.

3. The Government of Manipur, implementing agencies and financial institutions should responsibly withdraw from funding the planning or construction of the Tipaimukh Dam.

(LALREMLIEN NEITHAM)
Secretary