SHILLONG: The Khasi Hills Students’ Union (KSU) South West Khasi Hills District demanded from the state government to constitute an independent inquiry to probe the death of fishes in the Kynshi river (Ranikor) and the change of the river’s color.
President of Ranikor circle, Marconi Thongni, told reporters on Monday, “Fishes are dying and even the river has changed its color. On the part of the organisation we will bring an international agency to do so, if the government is not doing anything about it.”
He added that the union does not want to rely on the testing conducted by the Meghalaya Pollution Control Board (MPCB), alleging that it was not transparent.
“The MPCB said that it is due to coal mining but it is not so. We blamed it on the uranium drilling of the Maheshwari Company as the machines are still kept in the forest areas near the river banks,” Thongni said.
It may be recalled that Maheshwari & Maheshwari Mining Private Limited undertook the task of exploratory mining by the Atomic Energy Department (AED).
The union has demanded the district administration to clean the river as foul smell emanates from the dead fishes.
Thongni added, “People are packing the dead fishes in sacks to be sold in the markets. This is dangerous and the district administration has to stop this.”
He said that there are thousands of dead fishes in the river and the change of the color in the river was noticed in the month of January.