Arunachal gets new DGP as IPS officer Rajesh Kumar takes charge amid Siang dam protests

Rajesh Kumar was appointed Arunachal Pradesh police chief amid protests over a proposed hydropower project on the Siang River.

The Union home ministry on Tuesday appointed 1995-batch IPS officer Rajesh Kumar as the new director general of police (DGP) of Arunachal Pradesh, a day after he was prematurely repatriated from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) to his parent cadre.

The change comes at a time when a section of the tribal community in Arunachal Pradesh has been protesting against the proposed 11,200-megawatt multipurpose hydroelectric project on the Siang River, considered one of India’s largest. (HT File Photo)

The appointments committee of the Cabinet on Monday cleared the Union home ministry’s proposal to repatriate Kumar prematurely to his parent AGMUT cadre with “immediate effect” from the CRPF, where he was serving as Special DG.

In an order issued on Wednesday, the home ministry posted Kumar as the new DGP of the border state, succeeding the incumbent and his batchmate, Shiv Darshan Singh Jamwal, who has been transferred to Delhi.

The change comes at a time when a section of the tribal community in Arunachal Pradesh has been protesting against the proposed 11,200-megawatt multipurpose hydroelectric project on the Siang River, considered one of India’s largest.

The project, envisioned as one of India’s largest hydropower initiatives, has faced sustained opposition from sections of the indigenous Adi community, particularly residents of the proposed project-affected areas.

The opposition stems primarily from apprehensions over the submergence of ancestral villages, displacement, loss of agricultural land and forests, and the possible disruption of the community’s traditional way of life.

The project has also assumed strategic significance for the Centre, which views it as important in the context of China’s proposed massive hydropower project on the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet, which enters India as the Siang.

On Monday, Arunachal chief minister Pema Kandu had said in a statement that no decision has been taken without consent on construction of the dam will while appealing to protests to withdraw their 36-hour shutdown call in Upper Siang region.

“Let me be clear. We are not talking about dam construction at this stage,” Khandu said, explaining that the government was considering only a Pre-Feasibility Report (PFR) to assess the project’s viability and potential implications.