NHPC dam row: Farmers' outfit resumes blockade

After two days of temporary suspension of blockade programme by the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti in the two districts of Lakhimpur and Dhemaji on the north bank of the Brahmaputra in Assam, the influential peasant group on Monday resumed their stir.

The KMSS temporarily lifted its ongoing protest against the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation and Arunachal Pradesh government for two days -- December 31 and January 1 -- to build a congenial atmosphere for talks on the controversial dam issue with the Assam government.

The KMSS and the All Assam Students Union are opposing the NHPC's dam project at the lower Subansiri site and are blocking the movement of men and materials related to the project at Gerukamukh on the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border.

KMSS General Secretary Akhil Gogoi said that Monday's blockade programme would be an indefinite one.

"We have not received any positive signal from the state government for talks on the issue. It also proves that Dispur is not at all sincere in this regard. Therefore, we have no other option but to resort to blockade programme," he said, adding that the agitators were camped at Ghaghor in Lakhimpur and Gogamukh in Dhemaji.

Meanwhile, the AASU, along with 26 other indigenous organisations, has also extended its blockade programme till January 4.

The AASU has also announced that monitoring units, comprising its members and allied groups, had started functioning from Monday in Lakhimpur, Sonitpur, Nagaon, Darrang, Kamrup, Nalbari, Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar, Dhubri, Goalpara and Morigaon districts to keep check on the movement of NHPC vehicles to the project site.

Meanwhile, sources informed that the continuous blockade by the KMSS and AASU has triggered a scarcity of food and construction material at the project site.

Irked by the KMSS blockade, the Arunachal Pradesh government has urged New Delhi to ban the outfit.