Villagers disrupt work at kishanganga project

A protest was held by residents of Kralpora village near Bandipora in north Kashmir on Tuesday temporarily halting the ongoing work at the Kishanganga hydroelectric project. They were demanding jobs for members of the families of the affected farmers.
Residents had been protesting for the past few days, but the agitated villagers entered the site of the power project on Tuesday forcing the work to stop, reports said. The protesters mostly included those from the 163 families whose land has been acquired by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) for the construction of the project. They said they would not allow work at the project unless their demands were fulfilled.
Deputy Commissioner, Bandipora, Sajjad Hussain Ganai, who had a meeting with the representatives of the agitating villagers later today, said the matter, which had arisen due to a “misconception”, was being settled and things would be normal within a couple of days. The villagers were demanding jobs in the NHPC as promised to them, but the authorities were not able to give a time frame for fulfilling their demands, he said.
Of the 163 families, whose land has been acquired for the construction of the project, only 38 were benefitted with one member from each of the family provided with a job in the construction company, HCC, which started work at the site in 2009. However, these members were also disengaged about two years ago, residents claimed. They said the land, mainstay of their livelihood, had been acquired by the NHPC with the promise that they would be provided jobs in the project.
The Kishanganga hydroelectric project is located on Kishenganga, a tributary of the Jhelum, in Bandipora. It involves transfer of water of the Kishenganga flowing in Gurez through a 15 km-long tunnel into the Boonar stream through Kralpora near Bandipora district headquarters. The work on the 330-MW project began in January 2009 at an estimated cost of Rs 3,642.04 crore and was earlier scheduled to be completed within seven years by January 2016. With some delays and the revision of cost to Rs 5,783.17 crore, the project is scheduled to be completed by the year-end.