Dam updates - Roing Woes !

I'ad asked Raju Mimi, editor of Veracity( local daily of Roing ) to tell me few points about the meeting, few members of AIMSU ( All Idu Mishmi Students Union ) along with some delegates from Roing, had with the Chief Minister of Arunachal ( Mr.Khandu ). This team of delegates were accompanied by former CM of Arunachal, current Rajya Sabha MP, Mr.Mukut Mithi.

So below is what Raju responded back me with ( source: Idu mishmi community, Orkut )


Our meeting with CM n Mithi sir was not a success...
However...the points we got them to listen was..

-The state govt is loosing its independent decision making policy owing to huge financial investments in this dam building process.

-Why bargain with people for sake of NHPC? And why cant the govt bargain with NHPC for the people?

-Theres nothing like Dibang Project being of national importance. Its only the politics of business. Many auto, cement, steel and other companies want their goods to be sold, so dams has to be built.

Mithi's Response:

-If people don't want dams then there can be no dam. But the govt needs to appoint an expert committee to study the facts.
-Downstream people are not project affected.
-expressed unawareness of such large scale destruction before the project was initiated.
- Not having dams is also not a solution.
-I want our boys to each individually, in their own capacity strongly fight for our rights.
-otherwise we are already a minority...we will stand nowhere in the future...
-theres no point condemning our leaders but we must make them understand the situation. we need collective effort.
-taking part in our social activities for two years, i realised our community is very weak financially and academically. Even to celebrate our own festivals, the community cannot even mobilise Rs 1 Lakhs rupees. Its only when Mithi or Umbrey or NHPC gives donation.

-Whereas Nyshis can easily mobilise crores of rupees for their festivals,,forget about lakhs....
-ANSU, NES and all other Nyishi afiliated organisations can also easily mobilise crores of rupees.

And What Mr.Raju had to say on this: - What our concerted efforts needs to be is: 

We are so exploited that to become leaders we have to ignore our own community and appeal other community. That's how the policy went wrong and our leaders have only exploited our own people. That's why today there's not even a crorepati or academicians, intellectuals, bureaucrats or even a A class contractor in our community.

....Our young generations can no more look for state govt for employment since no one is there to help us....either compete at national level or dare to be different."

-Dorjee Khandu is CM now->Power Secy is from his community->Principal Advisor is from his community->Principal Secy is from his community->Contractor for NHPC is his family members->recently he appointed many of his community people to the post of officers in various department in Arunachal.

--Under his leadership Tawang has got all the centres attention and even tibetan refugee issue has died out. Remember some Monpas i have met are not comfortable calling themselves as arunachali whn they are out of arunachal. rather they like call themselves as Tibetan.
-Theres no point of talking of development if our own Idu people cannot decide for their future. Its time to make our community strong. Our people becoming CM or MP or MLA or Lt Governor is of no use when our community cannot strongly defend their rights. (Wangcha Rajkumar was shot dead in his own hometown, remember if our leaders neglect our own community then same fate may fall on our leaders. So make the community strong, only then our own community will protect us.)
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I certainly couldn't understand with the point that, "Not having Dam is also not the option"...

What can one make of it?
The idea of people deciding for themselves simply gets killed.

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Why Google is still the King

Why Google still rules the search engine world and will tend to do so for a good amount of years or decades, were some of the things that I'ad tried covering in one of my previous post:
search engine wars

But the most obvious of the reasons for undoubted supremacy of Google is it's " SIMPLICITY ", through which it tries to cater services to the users. Pictures below should make it clear.

Screenshot of Yahoo when you type the url " Yahoo "



( Yahoo's desperateness to show all the services that it can provide ? )


Ya, you do have the search engine option bar in yahoo homepage, which is networked with so many pictoral and text links.

Now, if you're thinking about the Yahoo search engine - a page dedicated just for the searches you might want to take, then you would need to take a little bit more of the hassle... " search.yahoo " that's the url that can take you to a search specific yahoo page ( very similar to Google's default home page ).

So, this is what Yahoo search engine looks like, which many of the net users are quite unaware of or reluctant to try reaching that even.





Now, on typing " google " in your url bar, this is what you get...



A simple Google's homepage dedicated to what most of the netizens look for - "searches".
So, the ruling seems quite obvious for us to comprehend why Google still is the leader.

What one can infer from here is that - Yahoo's marketing philosophy is more of
" Trying to sell what they have "
And Google's marketing philosophy seems to be - " Sell what consumer wants " .

Business as usual ! But, finally it's consumer that has the say.

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Are we next?

Since its inception the Chixoy, Guatemala's largest dam, has generated more ills than electricity. Unwilling to put up with more, on September 8, 500 Maya Indians seized control of it and threatened to cut off power supplies. The protests also sent out warning signals to the government which has only recently announced plans to build more such large new dams — including two on the Chixoy River itself.

The 500 protesters largely comprised survivors of the brutal army massacres carried out more than 20 years ago. "No new dams can be built until they right the wrongs done to the people of Chixoy,' said protest leader Juan de Dios, voicing the demands of his peers. Dios said the
dam's main turbines would be shut off unless the government met community leaders.

The Chixoy produces 275 megawatts of energy, accounting for 60 per cent of Guatemala's electricity. Located in the Mayan highlands, the dam has been controversial ever since development plans were first drawn up in the midst of bitter army repression during Guatemala's 36-year civil war. In 1980, the army and
paramilitaries killed 300 people from the village of Rio Negro, upstream from the proposed dam, after they refused a relocation offer.

The survivors are also seeking compensation from the World Bank, the main funding body that had aided the dam's construction. Even after an internal review had confirmed the atrocities, the bank continued to support the project, claim the angry Mayans.

(courtesy: indiaenvironmentportal )


When will the time come to realize that, there are far better avenues we can work out together to make things better for Arunachal. Now, did we ever believe Politicians and their chamchas could work wonder... Do we have to believe them this time as well?
A question we certainly should be asking ourselves.

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Arunachal defends its stand on NEWRA

Arunachal Pradesh Home Minister Jarpom Gamlin today said the situation in Arunachal has compelled the State Government to oppose the setting up of the proposed North East Water Resources Authority (NEWRA).
Talking to newsmen, Gamlin said: “Asom Government or the Centre blaming us won’t help solve the problem, because we have to see the interest of our State. The Brahmaputra Board or the NEDFi were formed with the aim of developing all the north-eastern States, but the people of Arunachal
Pradesh have seen over the years that most of the plans and activities of these two Central agencies are Asom-centric. From this experience, we have an apprehension that if the NEWRA is floated, it will also be Asom-centric and do little for the interest of other States of the Northeast.”
Gamlin said that the Arunachal Pradesh Assembly had already discussed the issue of NEWRA and adopted a resolution to oppose it. “The Brahmaputra also passes through Arunachal Pradesh, and there is a basic difference between Asom and Arunachal Pradesh in the ownership of rivers. Unlike Asom where the royalty from rivers goes to the State exchequer, rivers in Arunachal Pradesh are owned by various communities who get the river royalty,” Gamlin said.

This statement from the Arunachal Pradesh Home Minister came a day after Asom Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi claiming before the media that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was taking initiative to constitute the NEWRA. Now how the Prime Minister overcomes the Arunachal roadblock
in the formation of the proposed NEWRA remains to be seen.

On the Asom Government’s opposition to the setting up of mega dams in
Arunachal Pradesh, Gamlin said:
“Instead of blaming us, the Asom
Government should move the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) that
gives permission for setting up of big dams. We have set up big dams
with due permission from the CEA.”

(courtesy: indiaenvironmentportal )

I wonder, Mr Gamlin has the due permission from CEA but not the people of Arunachal Pradesh, and if there is something that had to be considered otherway round.
The concept of regulated development ( which had been elusive all this way ), growth of self-sufficiency, speed of social and economic activity, with a politicalised tinge of long term prospects - Few of the consumer durables for Arunachali consumers, I suppose.

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