Accusing officials of NTPC limited of giving hollow assurances on issues like employment for locals and adequate compensation for damage to homes caused by explosions carried out for the 520 Mega Watt Tapovan Vishnugad hydro electric project in Chamoli district, angry villagers stopped work at a project site and demonstrated against the company on Monday. The villagers have said stressed that they will now allow work to start at this particular site till their demands are addressed by the company.
The protesting villagers said that heavy explosions carried out for the tunneling work as part of the Tapovan Vishnugad power project had resulted in major cracks in their homes. They further complained that the company had not provided them compensation for the structural damage caused to their homes. In addition to this, the company had not facilitated generation of employment for the locals unemployed in the project, which has exacerbated the public discontent.
The locals state that in the past the company had talked of various aspects to address the issues being raised by the villagers but at the ground level, there is little that has been done towards doing the necessary. In the latest such instance, residents of Chaurami Paya under the Badagaon Gram Sabha state that the officials of NTPC had in the past talked of facilitating community development and providing employment.
However till date, the said community development being facilitated by the company, the protesting villagers alleged. Villager Ajit Pal said, “The company had made big promises to us in the past but the required work is not being done by the company. The company had also talked of using tunneling machinery for construction of the tunnel in the project but is now using heavy explosives for the said task which has caused large cracks in the homes of many villagers in the area,” he said. The villagers said that they had been forced to protest because of the apathy of the company. The protesting villagers visited one of the sites and stopped the work going on there. They said that they had also informed the administration and company officials about their protest but neither of them showed any interest.