People in Kargil are up in arms against the National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) for clubbing the Chutak Hydro Electrical Power Project (HEP) with Nimu-Bazgo HEP Leh. They are demanding immediate revocation of this decision which they term as ‘illogical and unilateral.
Imam Khomeini Memorial Trust Kargil in a communiqué to Lieutenant Governor Ladakh has invited his attention to the recent ‘illogical and unilateral’ decision taken by the Headquarters of National Hydro Power Corporation to club the Chutak Hydro Electric Power Project, Kargil with Nemo Bazgo Hydro Electric Power Project, Leh among others.
The Trust General Secretary said that the decision of the NHPC authorities is not acceptable to the people of Kargil.
“Imam Khomeini Memorial Trust Kargil, conveying the aspirations of the people of Kargil strongly reject this arrangement being anti-Kargil move to deprive the local people economically.”
The communiqué reads that the Chutak HEP is the only prestigious HEP in Kargil which was inaugurated by the then PM of India Manmohan Singh who greatly felt the necessity of the project owing to the topographical and extreme weather conditions of this backward frontier district.
“The then NHPC heads and the Government of the erstwhile state of J&K made commitments to the local people that the loss to the local population will be respected and fulfilled by the concerned at all levels. It is known fact that the power station is a source of livelihood to many of the villagers around whose ancestral cultivated lands have been allotted for this project and many locals have underwent physical disabilities in the process of execution of this power project besides other economic losses.”
“The peculiar mountain topography of Ladakh together with the harsh long winter season, heavy snowfall and the physical distance of hundreds of KMS between Chutak (Kargil) and Nimu(Leh) will make it very difficult to manage things if the clubbing as decided by NHPC is executed. This will put the otherwise fragile functioning of Chutak HEP to suffer badly. The decision is therefore illogical and taken in haste without considering the ground realities of Ladakh,” the communiqué reads.
It says that the local representatives of the area and CEC Ladakh autonomous Hill Development Council have already conveyed the public resentments of Kargil District to you (LG) in this regard and an early action in the matter is awaited. (KNT)