Uttarakhand Jan Manch activists, women action groups and students held noisy demonstrations and burnt effigies of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Shankaracharya Swaroopanand at Lohari Nagpala, Maneri, Uttarkashi, Chamba, Bhairon Ghati, Peepalkoti, Mussoorie and Garhwal Srinagar on Monday protesting against closure of power projects on the Ganga and its tributaries in Uttarakhand. “The Prime Minister should consider the development and aspirations of the deprived people of Uttarakhand and not give in to pressure tactics of anti-India forces that staged a drama at Rajghat and Jantar Mantar in New Delhi today,” said Jan Manch convenor Rajendra Todaria. Senior Uttarakhand State activist and journalist Jai Prakash Uttarakhandi addressing media persons in Mussoorie threatened renewal of “Uttarakhand-type agitation” if the Centre does not immediately order resumption of work on all the suspended power projects. Post-graduates from DAV (PG) College in Dehra Dun while staging a symbolic dharna in front of the Gandhi statue at Gandhi Park hoped that the politicians would stop playing games and come up with real-time development efforts to provide venues of decent earnings for the poor people of Uttarakhand. “U.S. conspiracy” Avdhash Kaushal, Chairperson of Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra ( RLEK), a Dehra Dun-based civil society organisation, accused the Centre of giving in to US-backed forces to stop hydro-power generation so that the country was forced to buy atomic power generating units and subsequently nuclear fuel from the developed countries. Also, producing power through coal would lead to more pollution than was present in the Ganga, he said. “I hope the Prime Minister would see reason and not give in to the unscientific propaganda by pseudo environmentalists and a handful of holy men being fooled by the clever manipulators,” Mr. Kaushal said.