SHILLONG: CEO of Worldview Impact Foundation, Dr Bremley B Lyngdoh, currently based in London, has said that the draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA), 2020, will land the state in danger.
Speaking to reporters, he said the environmental safety and public opinion is bypassed in the draft and it will also pose a threat to ownership of land.
“It also threatens to do away with public hearing,” he said, asserting that by doing so, the Centre intends to suppress people’s voice.
He said if EIA 2020 becomes a law, public hearing will be squashed and companies will start extracting minerals regardless of people’s sharp opposition.
Stating that the state attracts the attention of such companies, he said it will crush people’s rights empowered by the law.
Peeved at the heavy handedness of the Centre, Lyngdoh said a clarion call to oppose the EIA 2020 should be made not only by the people of state but by the North East as a whole.
It may be mentioned that the North East not only is a home to vast areas of land under forest cover but is also rich in minerals such as coal, uranium and limestone.
Lyngdoh pointed out that there will be a time when landowners will not have any say in the matters relating to their own land. “We need millions of people to oppose it. And the right time is now”, he said.
