athmandu, June 7: Local stakeholders of the area that would be affected by the construction of 900 megawatt Budhigandaki Hydropower Project have demanded the government to carry out rehabilitation and post-quake reconstruction works simultaneously.
As the devastating earthquake of April 25 and its aftershocks have damaged houses, schools, cultural monuments in and around the proposed dam area, a local stakeholders committee of Aginchok VDC, has requested to rehabilitate the people right now instead of carrying out the reconstruction in the area.
If the people are settled in the project area now, they need to be rehabilitated later. The committee has warned the government that if the quake affected people were resettled in the same locations, they would not accept the relocation offer in the future.
In a letter submitted to the chairman of the Budhigandaki Hydroelectricity Development Committee Limited (BGHDCL), they have demanded to relocate the settlements that would be affected by the project.
“The compensation, rehabilitation and reconstruction works should be carried out as per the international standards,” said the letter.
The committee has requested to manage the compensation and rehabilitation according to the data of the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the project.
It asked the BGHDCL to provide opportunity to invest in ordinary and preferential shares of the project and employment opportunities to the local people of Aginchok VDC to be affected by the project.
The Committee has asked to provide concessional loans to the locals, free health care to the affected people for at least two generations and control the activities of real estate mafia in the area.
Source : TRN
