Too much politics in Jowai garbage issue: MLA

SHILLONG, OCT 18: NPP legislator from Jowai Wailadmiki Shylla on Tuesday said the government could not acquire land for setting up of a permanent landfill for Jowai town because of “too much of politics”.

Shylla told reporters too many people are playing politics on the garbage issue – which had worstly affected the Jowai town and its residents in the recent past.

“We have not acquired any land. It is not a good time to move forward on this. That is why we are keeping it in abeyance,” he said.

Stating that the opposition never came from the landowners against the move to acquire land for setting up of the landfill, Shylla said, “We have called the Expression of Interest (EoI) and around 18-19 landowners came forward to offer their land for the purpose. Of these, we have selected 3 after a survey was conducted by the task force committee.”

“However at the end it is not the land owners who are opposing but are the people residing in and around the area and they are backed by NGOs. We have been trying all this time but what came out of this is that we see many people are just playing politics on this issue,” he said.

He said even the Meghalaya High Court while hearing a PIL on this regard had also observed that someone is playing politics on the garbage issue.

Shylla also expressed surprise that the opposition came despite awareness being created that there will be no ill-effects coming out of the landfill.

When asked, the MLA informed that the government for now is focusing on temporary arrangements for managing the waste disposal in the town.

“We have started the segregation of the waste at household level and soon will implement the same in the market,” he said while informing that waste treatment plants are also being set up in and around Jowai.

Earlier, the Leader of Opposition Mukul Sangma while raising concerns over the Jowai garbage issue in the Assembly had stated that the sitting MLA may lose the election if the government does not resolve the matter at the earliest.

Shylla however said the previous government could have acquired land for setting up of a landfill but they failed in this regard.

“It is not easy to solve this issue being a first timer but people do understand that I may need more time to solve it,” he added.

By Our Reporter