BENI (MYAGDI), March 11: Locals of Raghuganga Rural Municipality in Myagdi district have put forth a 31-point demand before five hydropower projects that are under construction within the rural municipality.
The Raghuganga folks collectively prepared the 31-point demand after holding extensive discussion among local political parties, stakeholders and people's representatives after the projects did not fulfill the minimum responsibilities.
The Rural Municipality Chairman Bhava Bahadur Bhandari shared that they, on Sunday, organized an all-side meeting at the rural municipality and prepared the demands after the projects did not make public the details of amount allocated under the social responsibility heading and other expenses.
He added that the municipality has sent a letter to the chiefs of the hydropower projects asking them to attend the extensive discussion related to hydropower to be organized by the Rural Municipality on March 14.
Raghuganga hydropower project construction begins
A 40-megawatt Rahughat, 22.5 megawatt Thulokhola 'A', 35.5 megawatt Rahughat Mangale, 21.3 megawatt Thulokhola and 48.5 megawatt Upper Rahughat hydropower projects are under construction in the rural municipality.
The locals and people's representatives protested after the projects started spending budget unilaterally though the environmental impact assessment report mentioned that there would be adverse impact on physical, chemical, biodegradable, economic, social, religious and cultural environment within the rural municipality due to hydropower projects and certain amount of budget must be allocated to minimize the impacts.
Though the hydropower projects last year made an agreement to gravel and upgrade the road from rural municipality to project sites, they have not started any activity in this regard so far, shared the rural municipality.
Among the demands made by the rural municipality include blacktopping of the approach roads constructed by the projects, making public the project's total cost estimate budget and spending the amount allocated under the corporate social responsibility as per the decision of the Ward and Rural Municipality Executive.
It is stated that although the rural municipality has urged the projects to submit their Detailed Project Report and the EIA report to it, none of the projects has done so far.
Similarly, among other demands are the hydropower companies should ensure 10 per cent share of their total cost to the locals of the project-affected area, immediately providing the compensation for the houses damaged at the project construction site, construction of alternative drinking water and irrigation facilities as the natural sources of water have dried up after the construction of the project tunnel, compensating for the damage caused by the project to the forests and providing appropriate compensation amount to the rural municipality for mitigating the damage caused by the environmental pollution.
The locals are irate after lack of transparency of the amount to be spent on the community's education, health, water supply, among other community services as demanded by the residents of the project-affected areas.
The people's representatives and stakeholders have exerted pressure calling for transparency of the amount to be spent for the community.
