Dhemaji, Feb. 26: The Lakhimpur district unit of the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuva Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) today protested against the Lower Subansiri hydel power project by burning a VCD recently released by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) to garner support for completion of the project.

The protest comes a few days after the project oversight committee, constituted by the Union power ministry, held a meeting in the district to take a decision on the fate of the project.

Construction of the 2,000MW project at Gerukamukh along the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border has been stalled since December 2011 because of protests by organisations claiming that the dam would be a potential threat to people living downstream of the dam site. Stalling of work has increased the dam's construction cost.

The claim has been refuted by NHPC authorities.

Through the VCD, Xonali Subansiri, the NHPC aimed to convince the people about the necessity of the dam in mitigating power shortage. The VCD shows how a child gets deprived of higher education because of lack of electricity and advocates that commissioning of the project is the only solution to the problem.

The VCD has been financed by the NHPC and directed by Narayan Sil. Its cast includes Jayanta Bhagwati, Vidya Rao, Mahaendra Kalita and Munni Kalita.

Pradip Sarma, president of Lakhimpur district of AJYCP, said, "We are not against development of the area, but we strongly oppose big dams. To lodge our protest, we burnt the VCD through which the NHPC tried to motivate the people to support it. It tried to convince them that the dam would not cause any damage to people in downstream areas."

He said whatever was shown in the VCD was "fake" and was meant to help them complete the project. He said they would continue their agitation till full security of life and property of the people of Dhemaji, Lakhimpur and Majuli was achieved.

An expert committee had recently visited the NHPC campus at Gerukamukh and the downstream areas of the Subansiri.

An NHPC source said landslide at the project site every year during monsoon could not be overruled, indicating that downstream areas could be affected.

NHPC officials, however, refused to comment on it.