Sir, It has been reported that, the Centre for Environment Education (CEE), a centre of excellence supported by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) is organizing a series of consultations on big river dams in north-east India on behalf of the MoEF on Sept 10 and 11. Under the pretext of consultations, the industrialists and ministers will manipulate earlier non-biased environmental reports and brainwash gullible masses. It seems Arunachal Pradesh and Assam is heading for a collective �Harakiri� (Japanese word for 'Suicide') and this abetment to suicide is carried out by both the central and the puppet state governments, the most influential industrialists, spineless ministers, slavish bureaucrats and all concerned temporarily builders. How foolish is man to control rivers? Sometime back, a forwarded message landed in the inbox of my mobile phone. It wisened me and it is hoped that we think over it. All those who believe in managing hydro power should hang the following piece on the walls of their homes and offices� (i) Trancedo Neves, President of Brazil. During a campaign, he said, �I have got 5,00,000 votes from my party. Not even god can remove me from presidency.� Sure he got the votes, but he fell sick and died a day before being made president! (ii) The man who built the Titanic was asked, how safe the great ship �Titanic� would be. With an ironic tone, he answered, �Not even God can sink it.� We all know what happened to the �Titanic�! (iii) Cazuza, Brazilian singer and poet. During a show, while smoking his cigarette, he puffed out some smoke into the air and said, �God this one is for you.� He died at the age of 32 of lung cancer in a horrible manner! These are not premonition or prediction. They show that the arrogance of human beings to natural factors. All the holy books�Gita, Upanishad, Bible, Quran, etc.,�says, �Do not walk proudly on earth: your feet cannot tear apart the earth nor are you as tall as mountains.� The false super-ego of man and greed money has blinded a section of our fellow beings. Unfortunately, it is we, the other half who will bear the brunt of their greed in the name of �development�. If the central government and the puppet state governments are so very concerned about �development� of the north-east, why don�t they take up the issue of flash floods caused by dam waters and releases from dam reservoirs too? Yours faithfully, Parthasarathi Konwar, Bharalumukh, Guwahati- 781009.
