By Our Reporter
Shillong, Dec 1: The Hynniewtrep Integrated Territorial Organisation (HITO) has opposed the Shree Cement Limited’s move to set up the Integrated Cement Plant at Khara Siang Lum Pyrshin, Daistong village in East Jaintia Hills, calling it an “imminent and irreversible threat” to agriculture, water sources, and indigenous livelihoods.
A HITO delegation on Monday submitted a memorandum to Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupendra Yadav, through Dr V George Jenner, Deputy Director General of Forests, at the Integrated Regional Office in Lumbatngen.
Speaking to the media, HITO president Donbok Dkhar said the project must be scrapped immediately.
“We demand the immediate cancellation of the proposed cement plant and all clearances granted by the Single Window Agency (SWA) or any other authority. This project poses irreversible damage to the paddy fields, water sources, and traditional livelihood systems of the indigenous people,” Dkhar stated.
He said the HITO has already submitted a detailed petition to the Ministry demanding a halt to all procedures facilitating the plant.
Citing the company’s own Executive Summary, the HITO president said the proposed site is only 0.82 km to 1.4 km from Daistong village and surrounded by nutrient-rich agricultural land.
“The plant requires 600 KLD of water, including 515 KLD of fresh water from local sources, and will generate continuous stack emissions and fugitive dust. This proves the project is fundamentally incompatible with an agrarian landscape,” he added.
Dkhar warned that cement dust, emissions and coal byproducts will devastate crops, contaminate soil, and strain fragile water systems. “Once ecological damage occurs, there is no restoration—only permanent loss,” he said.
He expressed concern that the SWA, which is chaired by the Chief Minister, cleared the project without allegedly ensuring transparency.
“Development cannot be bulldozed because it is politically convenient. No authority has the mandate to gamble with people’s future,” the HITO president said.
The petition lists key objections, including irreversible threat to paddy fields and agricultural livelihoods, air pollution incompatible with farming zones, high water extraction impacting irrigation, permanent conversion of agricultural land into industrial use, health and safety risks for nearby settlements and inadequate mitigation measures.
Dkhar said the HITO will not sit idle if authorities attempt to push the project.
“Any attempt by the Government of India, the Government of Meghalaya, or the SWA to push this project forward will be met with organised, lawful, and unrelenting mass resistance. We will stand shoulder to shoulder with affected communities,” he cautioned.
He urged the Ministry to reject the project entirely in the interest of environmental protection and indigenous rights.
