What a dam meant for? Is it for the benefit of a common man or to displace them from there homeland? In Uttarakhand Pancheswar dam issue is day by day rasing protests from the far villages. Fact file is really astonishing and says the story of exploitation of not only a big range of mountain area but also a common PAHADI man. Pancheswar dam was proposed in 1994 under Mahakali treaty between India and Nepal. Although Nepali Political parties including opposition party were not happy with this treaty. But now this project is going to come into action. Almost 19500 people are going to loose there homelands after the construction of this dam. 120 Indian and about 50 Nepali villages will be displaced. This multipurpose project is supposed to produce 6500 megawatt power. But these villagers are not happy with the project at least news of protests coming from far mountains makes it clear. It is a matter to think that how justifiable it is to displace peoples in this large amount.
Pancheswar issue is not that much open to understand. There are complexities behind the whole concept of dams in hilly areas. It is not construction of dam which is questioned but the amount of these dams is being questioned by several specialists. In case of Uttrakhand there are more then 100 power projects which are constructed or under construction. Government is allowing these dam projects without analysing the geographical situation. Land slide is a common in hills. Recent example of a big calamity caused by landslide was Malpa. In Far hilly district pithoragarh this calamity caused Death of 380 people. Pithoragarh and Tanakpur are areas covered by proposed pancheswar dam project. Both areas are in high risk earthquake zones.
The big question is if these dams are that risky and causing thousands of people to leave there homes then who are those getting benefits of these big budget projects. Answer is as simple as that. Reports say that up till now Detailed Project report of pancheswar dam is not being made public. It is hard to understand that in a democracy why details on these dam projects are not transparent. At least people of uttrakhand and especially from these villages going to be displaced are surprisingly asking what a dam shit these dams are giving to them.
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