The South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), a network of organisations working on water issues, has rejected a cumulative impact assessment of the Ganga basin hydropower projects done by the Alternative Hydro Energy Centre (AHEC) of the IIT Roorkee.

In a letter to union environment minister Jairam Ramesh, Himanshu Thakkar of SANDRP dismisses the report as biased in favour of hydropower projects and says it is not based on an actual cumulative impact assessment.

"We find that the report has not really done cumulative impact Assessment, has shown bias in favour of hydropower projects, which is inappropriate for the task at hand, has given many unfounded conclusions and recommendations, has made factually wrong assertions, has shown non seriousness towards even some of the welcome recommendations and has done far from objective assessment of the performance of the projects. The report also has not looked at the poor quality of EIAs-EMPs done for these projects and almost universal noncompliance of environment norms in the implementationof  of these projects. In short, the shoddy report is a lost opportunity and needs to be rejected, even while following up on some of the half-hearted but recommendations in the report," writes Thakkar.

For his detailed critique of the IIT-Roorkee assessment, see attachment below.