Residents of a village in India-administered Kashmir complain that they are facing hefty bills and long power cuts despite local politicians promising them free electricity.
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00:00This is our government's responsibility.
00:03This is our government's responsibility.
00:07Some of us have been here for more than 30 years.
00:11This is our government's responsibility.
00:16If it wasn't for the government, we wouldn't be here.
00:30Coming to ourbottom
00:32Coming to ourbottom
00:34Speaking ourchestroduction
00:36Speaking ourchestrproduction
00:52Power is what we need and the power bank is what we can't pay.
00:57If we don't do anything about it, how will we feed our children?
01:02If we don't do anything about it, how will we feed our children?
01:14The source, Dudh Ganga, its course has been changed,
01:18and that water, it flows through a meadow, that meadow was dug out,
01:22then there were huge pipelines were laid,
01:24so it has caused a lot of disaster,
01:28and in addition to that, hundreds of trees were axed in that area.
01:34So, I don't think it has been very much beneficial to people.
01:45Actually, it didn't have much effect on ecology.
01:48Ecology, we have done it in such a way that,
01:52where we felt that soil erosion is taking place,
01:58or some wildlife is being disturbed,
02:01we have installed our fencing from that side,
02:05and we have done some concreting from there,
02:08from where we feel that it can be damaged.
02:11We have provided protection walls from that side,
02:14we have provided local employment,
02:18there are a lot of people here,
02:20the people here, the STSC, we have given them a lot of support,
02:24they have got a lot of jobs here.
02:28It generated employment when the project was being constructed,
02:32some employment, that time,
02:35but from last 10 years, it is only giving employment to 10 or 15 people.
02:41So, I don't think that is sufficient,
02:45and the kind of environmental disaster that has happened there,
02:49you cannot compensate.