Dawa Lepcha with social activist Medha Patkar at a Gangtok hospital during the indefinite fast. File picture

Gangtok, May 6: A review committee set up by the Sikkim government has shelved the implementation of four hydel power projects in Dzongu, but given the nod to the biggest one located in the heart of the Lepcha reserve.

The committee’s suggestion that the 280mw Panan project was feasible, based on sustainable development, will not please Affected Citizen’s of Teesta (ACT), the organisation spearheading the protests against mega hydel power projects in Sikkim. ACT had earlier expressed its reservations about the composition of the committee headed by chief secretary N.D. Chingapa.

ACT general secretary Dawa Lepcha today said they were yet to get a copy of the committee’s report, which was submitted to the government on April 24 and approved on the same day.

“We refuse comment at the moment. And anyway there is no point in discussing the report because we had already rejected the committee when it was formed,” said Lepcha, who has been on an indefinite fast for the past 58 days to protest against the projects.

The report, which claimed to have taken into account the concerns raised by ACT, shelved the implementation of four projects — Ringpi, Lingza, Rukel and Rangyong — for the “time being”. All four are smaller compared to Panan, which got the green light.

The government had formed the committee in August last year to put an end to ACT’s earlier agitation against the hydel power projects, which the organisation says will destroy the fragile ecology of Dzongu. However, the government had rejected ACT’s demand for 50 per cent representation in the committee.