District admn opens enquiry into NHPC’s Release of Water & Warning Procedures

GANGTOK, 25 Apr: The East district administration has taken serious note of a minor girl’s death after being swept away by the Teesta river near Singtam when the water from the Stage-V Dam at Dikchu was released. The water was released without proper warnings being issued, the locals from the area have alleged.

This is not the only incident when apparent irresponsibility in the release of dam waters has led to macabre results. The more recent such event was when a dead body was washed away mid-way through the funeral rites being held along the river bank near Singtam on Thursday. The locals have now raised their voices against the alleged discrepancies in the NHPC’s, ‘Release of Water and Warning Procedure’ (RW&WP).

This has led the district administration to set up an enquiry under ADM, East, Aishwarya Singh on the NHPC’s warning systems.

DM, East, AK Yadav informed today that the administration has taken the matter very seriously since it is the locals who are being directly affected by this alleged lacuna of the NHPC.

“We are taking this matter seriously and have asked the NHPC to present their report on the RW&WP and the precautionary measures adopted by NHPC which they submitted today. Our officers are scrutinizing the report and have also decided to conduct a joint meeting between the stakeholders, NHPC and the enquiry committee who will discuss the total warning protocol and accordingly action will be initiated,” the DM detailed.

The DM also assured that the enquiry will check if the warning systems in place are fool-proof and will also suggest new measures after inspections and feasible suggestions of the stakeholders will be taken into account and the same will be declared by the enquiry team under the ADM within four days.

“If there is any discrepancy then as per the report of the enquiry team new directive will be issued that will be made mandatory for the NHPC Stage-V in future. We will surely find a way jointly on how to improve the existing warning systems and what needs to be further introduced to strengthen the present procedures,” assured the DM.