M’laya seeks solution to uranium mining

Faced with stiff opposition from students’ bodies and political parties to a proposal to mine the state’s vast uranium reserves, the Meghalaya Government has set up an all-party committee to find an “amicable solution” to the issue. “We are for an amicable solution to the uranium mining issue. We are trying our best in this direction,” Chief Minister D D Lapang said.

“The all-party committee, headed by Deputy Chief Minister Mukul Sangma and comprising 14 MLAs, is taking into account all aspects of the project. The committee will hear the views of all sides and is expected to submit its report soon,” he told here.

The uranium mining project at Domiasiat in West Khasi Hills district, estimated to be worth Rs 814 crore, has been strongly opposed by the hill state’s People’s Democratic Party and Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement, both members of the Congress-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government.

Asked whether his government would abide by the recommendations of the all-party committee if it opposed the mining, Lapang evaded a direct reply and said, “There are national interests and we (Congress) are a national party.” He said after his return to Shillong from the national capital, he would ask the panel to expedite its work. The influential Khasi Student’s Union, Meghalaya People’s Human Rights Council and Langrin Youth Welfare Association have also opposed the project, saying it poses health and environmental hazards. As assembly elections are due in Meghalaya early next year, the setting up of the committee is believed to be a move by Lapang to pre-empt any effort to make uranium mining a poll issue.

The all-party committee was set up after the Meghalaya Pollution Control Board (MPCB) recently conducted a public hearing on the Uranium Corporation of India’s mining project in the state, which has 10,000 tonnes of uranium ore    or 16 per cent of India’s total reserves of the precious mineral. About 75 per cent of the 700   people who attended the public hearing opposed the mining of uranium due to health and environmental hazards.

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