As Siang dam protests turn violent, NHPC's Rs 11-crore PR push faces test

A heavy security deployment maintained an uneasy calm at Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh's East Siang district after protests against the proposed Siang dam turned violent late on Friday and continued into the early hours of Saturday.

District Magistrate Jayanti Pertin told The Indian Express on Sunday afternoon that the law and order situation was under control. "It is too early to assess the damage. The restrictions on public gathering under section 163 of the BNSS in Pasighat, Mebo and Ruksin will continue until further orders," she said.

The simmering unrest underscores the resistance confronting the proposed 11,200-MW Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP) being undertaken by NHPC Limited.

Sources in the hydropower PSU acknowledged that opposition to the project showed no signs of abating despite what they described as "pro-people CSR activities" and the appointment of a public relations agency to build local support.

NHPC awarded Mumbai-based Concept Public Relations a one-year, Rs 8.73-crore contract in July 2025, with services beginning the following month. The engagement was subsequently extended by three months, until November 6, 2026, at unchanged rates, taking its value to approximately Rs 10.91 crore.

The latest violence came during this extended outreach campaign.

On Friday, security personnel fired tear gas shells at bandh supporters in Geku who were demanding withdrawal of the forces and scrapping of the project. By late evening, groups of young protesters had taken to the streets in Pasighat, where incidents of arson and vandalism were reported.

On Saturday, Chief Minister Pema Khandu expressed concern and offered talks. On Sunday, Khandu posted on X: "Misinformation and misconceptions surrounding the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project are creating apprehensions among our people. Bridging this information gap through facts, transparency and open dialogue is essential."

A senior NHPC official in Pasighat said the company suffered significant damage on Friday night. "One office was completely gutted while the other was partially damaged. A genset was also destroyed. We have not stepped out of our campus and are not in a position to assess the damage immediately," he said.

On hiring the PR agency, the senior NHPC official said: "We hired them as a professional service provider to put forward our side, to convey the facts about the project. This has helped as we have many supporters in the community who are not very vocal because of the pressure on them from the violent elements who have been disrupting our work."

When contacted, Concept PR declined to comment on the engagement. Sources in the agency said a team of more than 30 executives, including staff from Delhi and Kolkata, was assigned to the project at Concept's Itanagar office. Most of them have been withdrawn in the past few days as the protests turned violent.

The tender document for the PR assignment, reviewed by The Indian Express, makes clear why NHPC wanted professional persuasion.

It identifies "growing negative discourse" around the dam project and acknowledges concerns over submergence, displacement, environmental damage and land loss. The campaign sought to reposition the project as an opportunity for development and improved livelihoods.

The strategy operated across three distinct levels: Siang basin (Ground Zero), Itanagar (state capital) and New Delhi. Locally, the agency was to engage village elders, community leaders, priests, school headmasters, the youth, NGOs and indigenous groups. State-level outreach targeted officials, NGOs and media, while national messaging would emphasise clean energy, water security and national development.

The monthly schedule mandated 40 project staff, two NGO collaborations, 10 media-management engagements, four community events, four local-travel assignments, 10 local social-media influencers, two national-media engagements and 10 skilled communication officials.

The prescribed community outreach included listening sessions, public forums, closed-door meetings with government representatives and individual relationship-building with influential figures. Stakeholder mapping, sentiment assessments and a database of opinion leaders were intended to guide persuasion and feedback.

The media plan spanned newspapers, television, digital platforms and YouTube. Expected outputs included favourable news reports, opinion articles, interviews, features, press-release coverage and site visits.

The tender also sought sustained relationships with media outlets, crisis-response arrangements and monitoring of coverage and public sentiment. Reports were to track activities, audience reach, community feedback and shifts in perception.

Opposition to NHPC's outreach predates the PR contract.

In March 2024, the Siang Indigenous Farmers' Forum (SIFF) demanded withdrawal of what it said were NHPC CSR allocations of Rs 16.61 crore to the Siang district administration and Rs 94.29 crore to Upper Siang, questioning the use of the money for government schemes.

The proposed dam project remains at the pre-feasibility survey stage. The Government has presented it as a strategic response to China's upstream dam plans, but it faces strong opposition from sections of the indigenous Adi community over fears of displacement, submergence of ancestral lands, loss of livelihoods and environmental devastation.

In his X post Sunday, Chief Minister Khandu also wrote that he met representatives of the Arunachal Indigenous Tribes Forum (AITF) and community organisations "to discuss the project and strengthen our collective efforts to spread awareness across Arunachal Pradesh". "Our people deserve accurate information to understand the project, its strategic importance and the concerns associated with it," he posted.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Ojing Tasing, MLA from the Pangin constituency in Siang district, claimed that "85% of the residents are okay with the project".

Tasing, who is also a State Cabinet Minister, said, "The government has decided to continue with the PFR (Pre-Feasibility Report). I was at ground zero and there was no unrest, especially where the proposed site is. There is politics involved and outsiders are provoking the villagers."

Tasing said: "We have been inviting affected stakeholders time and again. Since water is a national security issue, the Central Government is also interested. So we will go ahead with the PFR. Whatever unrest happened was created by the Congress."

However, Bosiram Siram, president of the Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC), said the government had "mishandled the entire situation". "Unless the local people, indigenous farmers and villagers are convinced, it is not possible to implement the project because the landowners are reluctant. The government did not consult with the landowners and a large population can be displaced as a result of the project," Siram said.

Tajom Ejing, a resident of Geku village in the Upper Siang district, said the issue has been a longstanding one. "The current situation is very tough because residents of the affected areas are not ready to accept the construction of the dam. The state government should speak directly with the people but instead they tend to deploy military forces," said Ejing, who is also a part of SIFF.

Dubit Siram, a resident of Parong village, said, "Be it agriculture, horticulture or cattle grazing, people on both sides of the Siang are totally dependent on the riverbank for their horticulture. If the fields are submerged as a result of the proposed dam, we will not survive."