SHILLONG, NOV 6: A day after the state government made it amply clear that the Shillong Ropeway Project cannot be scrapped or shifted to other places after four years of signing the lease agreement and that the project is 3.15 km away from water sources in the area, the Joint Action Committee Against Shillong Ropeway Project intensified its agitation with a sit-in-protest in front of the Kiang Nangbah statue at Barik on Friday.
Member of the JAC, Venitia Mawlong, said the protest was not the beginning of the movement, but proof that the committee had not rested since day one.
“We as the JAC have come out to the streets and this is not the beginning but it is to show the public that the JAC has not rested since the first day,” Mawlong said.
She launched a direct attack on Tourism Minister Paul Lyngdoh for his remarks that there was no need to cry over the project, and accused him of personally attacking the protesting mothers.
“I want to make it clear especially to the Tourism Minister Bah Paul Lyngdoh who is a person with 12 powers, how can he say that there is no need to cry, to weep, does he understand what we mothers individually are going through, he should not personally attack us,” she said.
Mawlong recalled Lyngdoh’s days as president of the Khasi Students’ Union, when she said the people trusted him to unite Khasi children.
“Remember in the earlier times when he was still holding the post as president of the KSU, we had trust in Bah Paul because in those times he gathered us Khasi children, besides the fact that we are already a small community, why now does he oppose us, he threatens us through those dirty tactics of his,” she said.
“I think now is the time, now I know he is still in a difficult position, he is still travelling abroad but this message must reach him, that we are not resting and please do not threaten us the public, do not threaten, do not intimidate with your dirty tactics, please keep your dirty tactics in your house,” she said.
On whether the JAC would approach the High Court to seek a stay on the project, Mawlong said the committee had no such plan for now.
“There is no intention, until now we do not yet have any intention or we have not yet thought of going up to the honourable court because you understand that if we do that our agitation will end, in the end who will fight for us, the lawyers of both sides will fight,” she said.
“So it has not yet come to that and we do not think like that and I think we do not even need to go up to the honourable court, we will fight ourselves as much as we can,” she said.
Responding to Lyngdoh’s claim that the project does not affect water sources, Mawlong said it was sad to see a man who once loved his community now using his chair to threaten people.
“If Bah Paul was not in the chair now, he would be with us now because he was a person who loved his community at one time but now he is in a position, he is in the chair, the chair now perhaps has become even stronger so he threatens, not only us, the children of Raid Laban but he has threatened the city of Shillong and the whole State,” she said.
She also rejected the minister’s suggestion that outsiders knew more about Lum Shillong than locals.
“Do you think a person from outside knows the water sources for drinking, I do not think so and Bah Paul also should study, please do your homework, no more about Lum Shillong,” Mawlong said.
“We stand firm and the end is just this, do not touch Lum Shillong at all and we will not allow you to touch Lum Shillong,” she said.
*GTF warns of privatisation*
Chairman of the Greentech Foundation, H Bansiewdor Nonglang, said the agitation had been going on for four to five months and the protest was meant to tell the public truths the government had not told them.
“We have stood for about 4-5 months on this matter of the ropeway and now until we have come out to the streets, we want to inform the public to also know the truths, until now the Government has not told you the truths,” Nonglang said.
He said while everyone was talking about the 544 trees felled for the project, the bigger issue was what was planned at the terminals.
“All of us talk about the 544 trees that were felled there, we are sad, we are deeply pained for those trees but do you know, at the lower terminal what those buildings mean, at the upper terminal what those buildings mean, do you know there will come Restaurants, Food courts, I am not just speaking words, here in writing it is all there,” he said.
“The public must understand before Lum Shillong which is ours, is privatized, is commercialized, is exploited and if we lose it once, do not talk about Lum Shillong anymore from now onwards,” he said.
Nonglang said the GTF had been countered by the government, but it had acted with caution as elders.
“I speak from the GTF because we have been countered by the Government, remember that even if we make a mistake we stand as elders, with caution and thinking twice,” he said.
He recalled that in May, June and July 2026, mothers from Laban and Lawsohtun had come to the GTF office seeking advice on the condition of Lum Shillong after tree felling had started.
“I said we will see, we will dig deep and we will think and when we went we found that there was indeed felling of trees,” Nonglang said.
“When mothers seek help, how can we refuse, we work for whom and now you say that the GTF is instigating this, if we have to agitate for the drinking water sources, we will agitate,” he said.
By Our Reporter
