IMPHAL, March 11: The State BJP unit has urged the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change government of India to constitute a Powerful Environment Impact Assessment Committee (PEIAC) to save the degradation of Loktak Lake in Manipur.
A source said that BJP Manipur Pradesh general secretary Administration M Asnikumar has met Prakash Javadekar Union Minister of Environment, Forest Thursday early morning and submitted a memorandum with a detailed report on the Loktak Lake.
Further he appealed to look into the matter of the process of high degradation of the lake’s eco-system and livelihood of the people living in the vicinity of the lake. He has also appealed to review the anti-people Loktak Lake Protection Act 2006, the source said.
He further urged to Union Minister to constitute a powerful environment Impact Assessment Committee under the National level of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change government of India considering the international significance of the Loktak Lake the Wet Land International which included in the Ramsar Convention.
The lake, on which directly or directly many people are dependent for their livelihood, is also a cradle of biodiversity, tangible heritage of the Manipur people, the memorandum said, according to the source.
The implementation of Loktak Hydro Electric Power Project by National Hydral Power Corporation (NHPC) has extremely degraded the lake and its natural ecosystem as the project was implemented without any proper environment impact assessment, it continued.
The government of Manipur had promulgated Loktak Protection Act 2006 by taking advantage of a public movement to safeguard the lake, he added, according to the source.
Using this anti-people act the present government is implementing different projects without proper monitoring mechanism with post impact analysis, Asnikumar said in his memorandum.
It may be recalled that the above proposal has been included in the last parliamentary election manifesto of BJP party in Manipur.