Guwahati, Sept. 12: The Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) has now decided to target all companies and vehicles engaged in transporting construction materials to the 2,000MW Lower Subansiri hydroelectric project site in Dhemaji district besides contemplating social boycott of its employees.

The move comes as the government and the NHPC are apparently unmoved by the widespread protests launched by the anti-dam activists.

These are among the multi-pronged strategies likely to be announced tomorrow during a KMSS protest at Tezpur to get the project shelved in the greater interest of Assam, its general secretary Ahkil Gogoi told The Telegraph.

The KMSS and AASU had been protesting the movement of the turbines from Bongshichar in Dhubri district to Jogighopa in Bongaigaon but Dispur facilitated the movement under heavy security.

“Since neither the government nor the NHPC or the company ABC heeded our pleas, we have now not only decided to target all vehicles/companies supplying construction materials such as cement, iron, steel and generators but also socially boycott their staffers. People from all over the North Bank will attend the protests. We will not relent,” Gogoi said.

These measures, if implemented, would not only have far-reaching implications for the project but also for the local economy. Besides, the boycott move could also lead to social tensions.

Social boycott is not new to Assam as it was “successfully” employed by the AASU during the Assam movement.

There is an average monthly requirement of 2.5 to 3 lakh cement bags, 3,000MT of steel, 40,000 cubic metre of stone aggregate and 25000-30,000 cubic metre sand, besides three to four 12,000litre-capacity tanks of diesel, an NHPC source said.

Half of the NHPC employees are from the Northeast, most of them from Assam.

Neutral observers, however, said since the project assumes importance in context of the region’s power scenario and not many companies keen on taking up such projects in the state, anti-dam activists need to tread carefully so as not to push things to a point of “no return”.