SHILLONG: The Thma U Rangli Juki (TUR) has called for a final moratorium on uranium mining in Meghalaya and extended solidarity to the anti-uranium mining movement in the State, particularly West Khasi Hills.
“Just when the curse of coal and lime stone mining has been finally acknowledged, the prospect of life threatening uranium mining confronts us,” TUR said in a statement issued here on Wednesday.
“The associated environmental and health hazards from uranium mining and processing are too well documented to allow for any complacency on the part of citizens. UCIL’s plans to carry out open cast mining of uranium in areas around Domiasiat and plans to set up a processing plant at Mawthabah has been opposed for long by people from the area. This opposition was evident even in the flawed public hearing ten years ago on July 12, 2007 where person after person expressed their apprehensions and opposition to the project,” the statement added.
“Rather than listening to the voices of the people, UCIL and the Indian nuclear establishments have indulged in developmental blackmail by buying people’s support through financial inducements,” TUR alleged while also opposing the two lane road project connecting Nongstoin and Wahkaji meant to “facilitate uranium mining”.
TUR also criticized the “callous silence of most of the political classes” about uranium mining and condemned the “ill informed and empty statement of the chief minister who views uranium mining as just a potential law and order problem”.
