SHILLONG, JULY 14: The anti-uranium Joint Action Committee of Social Organizations (JACSO) on Thursday demanded that the centre and state governments close the chapter of the proposed uranium mining in the state.
The JACSO-South West Khasi Hills District has also submitted at least 3 letters addressed to the chief minister Mukul Sangma, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) and UCIL.
“We demand that the centre and state governments to put an end to this uranium mining chapter in the state,” JACSO chairman Wallambok Syiemiong told reporters at a news conference on Thursday.
Stating that the JACSO is not against development, he added, “We are for development in a transparent manner without any conditions.”
Blaming the MoRTH for attempting to mixed development and uranium mining, Syiemiong said, “It is the ministry who in its notification had stated the two-lane road project from Nongstoin to Mawthabah is to facilitate uranium mining.”
He also informed that the stand of the JACSO is for single-lane road from Nongstoin to Ranikor via Phlangdiloin and not to Mawthabah village, which already has a single-lane road but was left unattended for decades.
He also alleged that the growing demand for NOC from KHADC, which was never seen in the past, only indicated that the road is for facilitating uranium mining.
On the other hand, JACSO secretary Robertjune Kharjahrin said, “The centre should give a clear cut clarification on the sole purpose of the two-lane road by ensuring that the road is not at all link to uranium mining.”
He said because the entire situation has arisen out of the notification of the MoRTH, linking development with uranium mining, which the people are against.
In a letter, which was also addressed to the General Manager (Open-pit), UCIL PN Sarkar, the JACSO has demanded the central government, state government and UCIL to put a stop or cancel the recent tender notice issued by the UCIL.
Meanwhile, the JACSO also condemned Congress Shillong MP Vincent H Pala for his alleged childish statements, aimed at misleading the people of the region.
“To say that the MoRTH has come up with such notification to convince the Finance Ministry to sanction the road project is something which is unacceptable. Is he (Pala) trying to say that ministries of the central government are trying to fool each other,” Kharjahrin said.
He felt if such childish statements are being made by a senior political leader, then he (Pala) is not fit to be an MP at all and added he should also have heard the independent voices of both groups which are for and against the uranium project.-By Our Reporter
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