SHILLONG, FEB 23: The Civil Society Women’s Organization (CSWO) has demanded immediate investigation and closure of coke factories in the two districts of West Khasi Hills and East Jaintia Hills.
In a letter to the chief secretary MS Roa on Tuesday, CSWO president Agnes Kharshiing said, “We urge an immediate investigation in these coke factories in West Khasi hills District by experts, on the pollution, the healthcare, and the vegetation of the crops to be tested by the correct experts, and immediately close down the factories running illegally in these areas of Shallang, and all coke factories in East Jaintia Hills District and change the police in those areas and provide security to the people and staff who want to expose the illegal activities in the state, so that a government runs for the people at large.”
She also said “The government should also order a study of the NESAC maps to reveal all the illegalities in coal mining feeding the coke factories in Meghalaya and also the facts of the exact extracted coal available in Meghalaya in 2014, and send an inquiry immediately to check the mafia and their connections with anyone who allow the illegal rat hole coal activities in West Khasi Hills District(WKH) and in areas near Shallang, WKH District, South West Khasi Hills District, East Jaintia Hills, and West Jaintia Hills, so that people will not be put in fear by terror by the powerful.”
Kharshiing said the organization has been getting information that the people staying in Nongdaju, Shallang areas near the coke factories in Shallang are affecting daily from the pollution of these factories in this area and it is also affecting the crop of their agriculture farming.
“The dust from these coke factories are seen by the people in the mornings in their surroundings. We had also seen that there were more than 10 factories,” she said.
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