NHPC beacons for destruction of human lives

Singtam, Sikkim: It’s almost been years or so the most disputed NHPC Stage V Hydel Project has started a production of Electricity from raging Sikkim’s largest torrential river Teesta but beside production one very important thing hydel project has neglected is security of human habitats meandering along the river side’s. Thousands of people lives along the river banks, playful childrens and animals comprising of domestic & wild life who are constantly roaming along great river bank of Teesta. Some of the people are sustaining their livelihood from the river too alternative to that occupation they have no other option for survival for themselves and their families. May be crores of rupee worth power is generated from the river but what’s the value of those generated power where shaft of turbine kills innocent human lives? The violent gushing current of Teesta is ferocious which has never left anyone alive on its vicinity since many hundred years, now the trapped lakhs of cubic meter volume of water in a dam in recent times if there goes anything wrong then one can think about unscalable catastrophe raging from dam site in Singtam to plains of West Bengal. It is although know reality that the tiny himalayan piece of land Sikkim resides on top of deadly seismic zone and fault, so precaution was top priority to be given at earliest then thinking about production?
What early precautionary measures are adopted and commissioned by NHPC so far, it could just be no other written black & white promises in MoU signed with authority. Lets come to a basic thing now, has any one estimated how much water is stored up there in reservoir in the closed dam of NHPC? Alas! Not really has anyone thought about it…
The necessity is surely a mother of invention but subject to constrain about security first then comes the usages, is not it so? Busy highway NH-31 A runs parallel to the river Teesta, apparently or unfortunately there’s not a single well equipped alarm system or visible signboard which reads “Death is following you!”. Not just a highway even a residential houses which are on both sides of road from Singtam to Sevok in plain are safer in case water level goes bewildering anytime.
Sikkim is a tourist destination place as well as nearby hills of Darjeeling lives up with tourism benefits from river Teesta using it for adventure sports like rafting. In that case what precaution is made so as to notify the innocent people about sudden rise in water level or even while draining excessive water level in reservoir in dam site?
The Hindus cremate dead body in river bank a ritual which is followed since thousands of years, astonishingly there has triggered many instances where the ritual being concluded properly the body gets washed away due to sudden rise in water level of Teesta.

Source: Voice of Sikkim

Labour front backs NHPC Stage V workers

GANGTOK, August 28: The labour frontal organization of the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) party has backed the NHPC Teesta Stage V workers who have threatened to launch an indefinite strike at the hydro-electric power plant at Balutar from August 31 if their pending demands are not met by the management.
In a meeting held today at SDF party headquarters here at Indira Bypass, the All Sikkim Democratic Labour Front (ASDLF) said that the demands raised by the labourers of NHPC Teesta Stage V plant are fully justified. The labour front also demanded the NHPC management to resolve the labour issue without any further delay.

“We will like to draw the attention of the NHPC Teesta Stage V management not to play with the rights of the labourers and not to allow the peace and discipline of Sikkim to be vitiated. If the demands are not met in due time, the labour front will also join the peaceful strike to be started by the workers at the plant”, warned the ASDLF in a press statement.
On Thursday, the fifty three workers recruited by the NHPC Teesta Stage V project as part of its rehabilitation and resettlement package for the project displaced families had threatened to launch an indefinite strike at power plant from August 31. They have been demanding ‘re-designation of existing grade as per educational qualifications’ as all of them have employed in the lowest grade of W-0 as helpers.
The NHPC management has been given a deadline of August 30 to fulfill their demands, failing which, the workers have threatened to launch an indefinite strike from the next day stopping all production work in the power plant.
Backing the agitating workers, the ASDLF said that the steps taken by them are in the interests of Sikkim and Sikkimese labourers. “We also appeal all the NGOs to support the strike call of the NHPC workers,” the labour front said.

Source: VOC

Mishap at Teesta Low Dam Project

Kalijhora : One person died and three others were seriously injured when an NHPC dumper crashed into a security checkpoint at the entrance of the Teesta Low Dam Project (Stage IV) and fell about 30 feet to end up on the Kali riverbed here this afternoon.

The dead has been identified as Bikash Gurung, an employee of Gorkha Security Service, a private security agency engaged by the power major at the project site. The spot is located on the confluence of the Teesta river and the Kali rivulet, about 40km from Kalimpong and 25km from Siliguri.

Another security guard, Bikash Tamang, and the driver and helper of the dumper, whose identities are yet to be established, are among the injured. All three have been admitted to a hospital in Siliguri.

Eyewitnesses said the dumper was entering the project site when the driver lost control of the heavy-duty vehicle and crashed into the checkpoint, before nose-diving 30 feet to land on the Kali. Both Gurung and Tamang were inside the checkpost and had no chance of getting out as the dumper took the tinned structure down with it.

“Till Thursday I was the one doing duty at the checkpoint. I can only thank my stars that I was posted in another area today, or I could have been the victim,” said Jiten Thapa, Gurung’s colleague.

Forty minutes after the incident, which occurred around 4.20pm, Thapa still seemed to be in a state of shock.

“Bikash (Gurung) was from Mungpoo, and was very good to me,” he mumbled.

The NHPC has engaged a number of dumpers like the one that was involved in the accident today at its project site. “The dumpers carry mud from the site to the dumping yard (across the Kali bridge),” said Sanjay Ghosh, personnel manager of Teesta Low Dam Project (Stage IV).

Source: The Telegraph