Hundreds of protesters opposing the proposed 11,200 MW Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP) allegedly set several government offices and police vehicles on fire at Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh’s East Siang District on Friday evening, officials confirmed on Saturday.
This caused inconvenience to people and halted traffic. Pertin informed that the protesters then started targeting the NHPC office, Pasighat police station and seven police vehicles, which were burnt down. Some of them damaged the houses of the BJP state president and the two MLAS. Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu condemned the violence and urged protesters to talk. “I strongly condemn such violent protests and urge everyone who has concerns regarding the SUMP project to come and sit for talks instead of resorting to such means.
“There was a 12-hour bandh on Friday from 5 am till 5 pm by some people opposed to the project. It went off peacefully in Pasighat, but after 5 pm some protesters calling themselves Gen Z insisted on continuing the bandh and blocked the highway. The state government sees the 11,200-MW Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP) as a strategic safeguard against China’s massive hydropower development on the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet, but those who call the river’s banks home in Arunachal Pradesh fear displacement, ecological destruction, and the loss of ancestral land.
The Pasighat office of National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC), several government offices, one police station and seven to eight police vehicles were allegedly set on fire and damaged by hundreds of protesters claiming to represent Gen Z, according to officials. The houses of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party state president Kaling Moyong and MLAs Oni Panyang and Ninong Ering were damaged, and some property was taken away by the protesters, officials said. The local magistrate and security forces tried to persuade them for two hours to disperse,” said Jayanti Pertin, deputy commissioner of East Siang. Protesting is a democratic right, but should be done within limits and without causing harm or damage to anyone or properties,” Khandu said.
