KATHMANDU, June 9: The four employees union of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) that have launched protest against the NEA decision to upgrade the 60 MW Upper Trishuli 3A Hydropower Project to 90 megawatts refused to sit for talks with the NEA management Saturday. The unions say they will not stop the protests until the upgrade decision is scrapped.
´We have just one demand and the NEA management cannot fulfill it,´ Ram Prasad Rimal, chairman of the NEA Employees Union, said. ´We demand that the decision to upgrade the project should be scrapped.´[break]
The four employees" unions launched protest last Friday. ´We want to make it clear that talks are not necessary. The government can simply scrap the upgrade decision and we will immediately end protest and resume work,´ Rimal said.
The NEA management had invited the unions for dialogue regarding the NEA board"s decision to upgrade the capacity. ´The management said that it wanted to provide us additional information regarding the upgrade decision but we are not interested,´ Rimal told Republica on Saturday.
´We have further intensified the protest programs as the government didn"t listen to our demand so far,´ Rimal said.
The four employees" unions include: NEA Employees Association, NEA Employees Unions, NEA Employees Council and Nepal National Employees Association.
Explaining the details of the protest programs, Rimal said they would cut power supply to the ministerial quarters in Pulchowk for two hours from 10:30 am on Sunday. ´We will also cut power supply to the NEA head office for four hours Sunday and stage pen down protest throughout the day,´ Rimal said. ´The employees" unions have decided to stage a pen down protest for four hours in all NEA offices across the country.´
The controversial decision to upgrade the capacity of the project has been criticized from various quarters including by former energy and finance ministers. Senior leaders including central committee member of the Nepali Congress (NC) Dr Ram Sharan Mahat, central committee member of NC Prakash Sharan Mahat, politburo members of CPN-UML Surendra Pandey and Gokarna Bista and senior leader of the Rastriya Prajantra Party Dr Prakash Chandra Lohani have jointly submitted a memorandum to the chairman of the interim election council Khil Raj Regmi to revoke the upgrade decision Thursday.
In their six-point memorandum, the leaders have argued why the project should not be upgraded. ´The project"s upgrade is not in the interest of the country,´ reads the memorandum. ´Upgrading the project"s capacity will further deepen the load-shedding problem in the country.´
Upper Trishuli 3A is a run of the river project being developed by the NEA with China Gezhouba Group Company Limited as contractor. The Exim Bank of China has provided soft loan of US$ 89 million for the project.