Dear Friends/Co-sailors,
Greetings from WIO and
Mahanadi River Waterkeeper!
We are organizing a public
hearing on impacts of coal fired power plants on Mahanadi. This will be held on 28th of September at
Chantipali village in Lakhanpur block of Jharsuguda district. This village is on the Odisha-Chhattisgarh
border and the public hearing will especially cover the impacts of NTPC's Lara
Power Plant that has been approved without consulting the bordering villages
who would be impacted by it. In fact,
map of the EIA report has put several villages in Odisha under the buffer zone
of the plant.
Water Initiatives Odisha, as
part of its 'Save Mahanadi Campaign' is organising this public hearing along
with the federation of local self-government representatives of the area known
as 'Sarpanch Sangha, Lakhanpur'.
In fact, many power plants
have come up in Chhattisgarh-Odisha border without caring for the impacts they
would have on the Mahanadi waters as well as people and ecology of downstream
in Odisha. NTPC’s Lara Power Plant is
one such plant, which has been set up ignoring genuine concerns of people of
Odisha who will be impacted negatively by the plant.
People from Odisha, especially
from the Lakhanpur block, have been opposing this plant and asking the Odisha
government as well as the Govt. of India to intervene and make their voices
count. Despite a long agitation, the
Govt. of Odisha has not moved an inch to support the people’s genuine concern.
They have not received any positive response from the central government
either.
The Alternative Public Hearing
that we are organising will have submissions from the local people with an
objective to compile their grievances, add that with environmental concerns as
viewed by experts who would join as 'People's Judges' in the public
hearing. The matter will then be taken
up at a larger level for providing justice to the local people and freeing
Mahanadi from pollution of Thermal Power Plants.
Environmentalist of national
and international repute Debi Goenka from the Conservation Action Trust, Mumbai
will join as the 'Chief People's Judge' in this programme along with Ranjit
Patnaik, a known wildlife expert and member of Wildlife Society of Odisha who
will join as 'People's Judge'.
Ranjan Panda, Convenor of of
Water Initiatives Odisha and a known water expert of the nation will co-ordinate
the hearing along with Sanjeet Padhan, convenor of the Sarpanch Sangha
Lakhanpur.
The programme is scheduled to
start at 10.30 AM to be over at lunch time.
May we request you to please
support this great cause of the people of Odisha and ecology of the Mahanadi
River by joining us if possible and/or spreading the word to all your contacts.
Looking forward to your
support.
Thanks and regards,
Ranjan Panda
Convenor, Water Initiatives Odisha, INDIA
Mahanadi River Waterkeeper (Member, Waterkeeper Alliance, New York)
Mobile: +919437050103
Email: ranjanpanda@gmail.com,
Skype: ranjan.climatecrusader
Email: ranjanpanda@gmail.com,
Skype: ranjan.climatecrusader
Water talks to me, I speak for Water...
===
Water Initiatives Odisha (WIO) is a coalition of civil society organisations, farmers, academia, media and other concerned, which has been working on water, environment and climate change issues in the state for more than two decades now.
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