A group of villagers, affected by the stalling of the Him Urja Vidyut Pariyojna at Nandprayag and Vishnugad Vidyut Pariyojna at Pipalkoti, staged a symbolic chakka jam on the Rishikesh-Badrinath highway at Pipalkoti on Sunday, threatening self-immolation if the government didn't order the resumption of construction work there.

Unhappy with the government for first promising power and revenue generation opportunities to the affected villagers while taking away their lands, and later scrapping the projects at the instance of some environmentalists, the villagers — mostly women — threatened self-immolation if work wasn't resumed by May 10.