India needs to establish its river water right
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi’s son and first-time lok Sabha MP, Gaurav Gogoi has advocated for speeding up the construction of the hydro-power projects on Brahmaputra and its tributaries to counter China’s similar plan in Tibet region where the river is called Yarlung Tsangpo.
The Central Government recently informed that the Chinese authorities had approved three more hydro power projects on the river in addition to one project at Zangmu in Tibetan region.
The Union Minister of State for Water Resources Santosh Kumar Gangwar recently told the Parliament that the “outline of the 12th Five Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China’ indicated three more hydro-power projects have been approved for implementation by the Chinese Authorities”.
Gaurav, who won from the Kaliabor parliamentary constituency, said that harnessing Brahmaputra’s hydro-power potential and other utilisation of its water resource have become an imperative for establishing India’s rights over the river.
“Hydro-power is clean energy source and the projects on Brahmaputra need to be put on fast-track because China is also doing similar activities on the river. However, we should not compromise on the safety issue of the projects. Sooner the projects come up on Brahmaputra, Assam and parts of north-east can overcome power crisis,” Gaurav argued.
Gaurav, however, rued that the despite Brahmaputra immense potentiality the BJP Government’s Union Budget this time has not proposed any major projects on the river. “Flood and erosion is the major problem of Assam, yet the Budget has nothing on it. Moreover, there is no project on using Brahmaputra for inland water transportation, whereas the Budget has announced similar scheme on Ganges,” Gaurav said.
On the dissidence activities among Congress legislators in the State, Gaurav said that the sooner they overcome the differences it is better for the country. He even refused comment anything on former Health Minister Himanta Sarma who is leading the dissidence camp in the State, saying that, “He (Sarma) is a senior person. I am only concerned about working for the people and for the State.”