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No consensus on uranium mining in Meghalaya

Manoj Anand

The Rs 800 crore compensation packages to develop infrastructure in uranium-rich villages in West Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya has failed to convince the anti-mining lobby comprising NGO and local leaders in the frontier state.

According to Union Cabinet secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar, "Meghalaya can not only play a significant role in contributing to India’s energy requirements, it can also bring economic prosperity to the state". This also indicates the urgency of New Delhi to go ahead with its ambitious uranium mining project in Meghalaya. The Uranium Corporation of India Limited has proposed a Rs 1,046 crore opencast uranium mining and processing plant at Mawthabah in the West Khasi Hills district of the state, which has an estimated deposit of 9.22 million tonnes of uranium ore.

However, the government-owned mining company has failed to make any progress on mining front as it has failed in convincing the state government, political parties and anti-mining groups.

The uranium mining areas are scattered in the West Khasi Hills district. Initially, the project was limited to Domiasiat, the UCIL has renamed the project as Kylleng-Pyndeng Sohiong Uranium Project considering the vast deposits of the metal in the entire stretch from Wahkaji to Mawthabah village. Mr Chandrasekhar and Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar, who were here to hold talks with political parties and anti-mining groups, said: "We are currently targeting to generate 20,000 MW of electricity through nuclear energy. We need uranium resources to achieve this goal. We have started the mining projects in three states except Meghalaya."

Mr Chandrashekhar and Mr Kakodkar met the all-party committee on uranium mining and the NGOs in Shillong on the need to start the project. But the officials failed to make any breakthrough, with both the officials saying that they received a mixed response. They also clarified that New Delhi would not force the decision on anyone to go ahead with uranium mining but leave it to the state government and the people to decide.

Mr Kakodkar, who briefed Meghalaya chief minister Donkupar Roy and the members of the All-Party Committee on Uranium Mining, besides anti-mining groups, said: "Uranium mining is safe. There is no fear of any health and environmental problems due to uranium mining. We have advanced technologies for safety performances in all the nuclear plants." Knowing that several students’ organisations and peoples representatives are not convinced, Meghalaya chief minister said he and his Cabinet colleagues did not make any commitment to the visiting officials.

"Health hazard is still a major concern for us," said the chief minister, pointing out that his government is awaiting the reports from the experts’ groups constituted by the All-Party Committee on Uranium Mining.

One of the expert panels, comprising state health department officials, will look into the local concerns of health hazards. The other panel of specialists from the Northeastern Hill University (NEHU) will look into the pros and cons of the uranium mining project.

The Khasi Students Uni-on president Samuel Jy-rwa, who has been at the forefront of the movement against uranium mining, said the compensation pa-ckage was nothing but a "bribe". "The Centre sh-ould stop this appeasement policy and realise that no amount of financial package can help reduce health hazards which would result from uranium mining," Mr Jyrwa said.