Cong flays govt over hydel projects set up without thought to environmental impact

New Delhi: In the wake of landslides in Sikkim, the Congress on Wednesday hit out at the government and said hydel projects in ecologically fragile regions have been coming up over the past few years without giving adequate thought to their cumulative environmental impact.

The opposition party also asserted that dams on the Teesta river are the prime example of how ecology is being fundamentally altered with grave consequences for this and future generations.

A massive landslide struck east Sikkim on Tuesday, damaging parts of a 510-mw hydroelectric project on the Teesta river. The landslide happened at Dipu Dara near Singtam in Gangtok district around 7.30 am, causing significant damage to the powerhouse of the Teesta Stage V hydroelectric project of the NHPC.

This disaster comes on the heels of the Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF) and riverine floods in the Teesta River basin in October 2023, which caused massive devastation in Sikkim and Kalimpong, West Bengal, ongress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh noted.

The Union Budget, unveiled in July 2024, had a section dedicated to ‘Irrigation and Flood Mitigation,’ where Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman made the vague promise of “assistance” without any details of funds for Sikkim, he said.

“The obvious vendetta politics aside, the Budget announcements were insufficient - what the entire region needs is for a development framework that centres ecological dimensions, the case for which has become apparent from the cascading series of disasters in the last year,” the former environment

minister argued.