Villagers protesting against NHPC stopped work on Kishanganga Project

Angry protesters on Tuesday stopped work on the Kishen Ganga Hydro Electric Power project in Bandipora district of north Kashmir to demonstrate against the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) for allegedly failing to honour the 2009 agreement between the locals and the corporation.

Scores of residents of Kralpora village entered inside the power house and other operative units and forcibly stopped the work.

“As per agreement, which was approved by the then DC Bandipora, Mohammad Maqsood Zargar, 163 persons of affected families were to be employed in the corporation but only 38 were employed,” said Ghulam Mohi-ud-din.

He said that those 38 persons employed in the corporation were later disengaged from their duties and the corporation engage non-locals in their place.

The locals, mostly those whose land has been acquired for the construction of 330 Megawatt Power Project, claimed that the NHPC had earlier promised the affected villagers of providing the employment. “… but nobody has been employed seven years after the work started,” said another protester.

Ghulam Mohammad, another local, said that they will not allow anybody to resume work on the project till their demands are not met.

He said that locals have been either appointed as helpers or labourers in the company while the non-locals have been appointed on prime positions.

The villagers are asking the NHPC to provide employment to one person from each family displaced by the project and to ensure that the relief and rehabilitation process is implemented strictly according to the agreement signed between the executing agency and locals.

Locals also appealed to the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to personally look into the matter so that their demands are fulfilled without any discrimination.