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Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Blasting at Rongnichu hydel project site stopped till next court hearing

GANGTOK, 03 Feb: Blasting works at the tunnel site of the Rongnichu hydel project has been stopped till the next court hearing. It is informed that after the initial orders to suspend blasting works at the tunnel site at Sumin, East district, the orders have been now extended to the next date of hearing of the case which falls on the last day of February.
The DC, East, J Raje, had suspended the blasting works on the complaints of locals of the area on 22 January pending verification of the grievances of the locals.
The grievance of the locals of the area was that the company, Madhya Bharat was violating some of the conditions of resuming the blasting at the head race tunnel at Sumin as stipulated by the DC, East. Subsequently a few days ago officials comprising the SDM, East along with Joint Director, Mines & Geology, visited the blasting site to understand the grievance of the locals as well as verify the same. They also interacted with the project site officials, it is informed.
Locals inform that the inspecting officials made it known to the Madhya Bharat personnel that they had to stick to the stipulations and other conditions of blasting as in the order of the DC, East made on 16 January. These pertained to the strength and amount of explosives used, no nighttime blasting and reporting each blasting event on a daily basis among others.
However locals put up a stiff protest, it is informed, and submitted that the Madhya Bharat personnel, while in the presence of the inspecting officials always agreed to the conditions but continued violating the terms in practice later.
The locals protested that since the tunnel went directly under several of their houses it posed a real threat to the stability of their dwellings and further sought that the blasting works be suspended till the next date of the court hearing. Locals inform that this was finally agreed upon by the inspection team and as of now, the blasting works at the tunnel site has been suspended till the court date of 28 February.
The blasting works for the construction of the head race tunnel of the project at Sumin had been stopped for the past almost one month and only on 16 January had the company received permission to resume. Then on 22 January locals petitioned the administration to stop it again on ground of violations and threat to their houses.
Among the conditions alleged to have been violated by the developer was the stipulation that there should be no night blasting. Further more there was also the stipulation in the order granting resumption of 16 January that the local police had to alert people beforehand that there was blasting going to happen in the area. These conditions were alleged to have been violated by the residents.

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