| Clans disagree over uranium radiation’s side effects and regret lack of enough awareness drives | ||
| E.M. JOSE | ||
Wahkaji, (West Khasi Hills), Sept. 29: To mine or not to mine is a question that has divided clans, families and friends in Meghalaya. This holds particularly true for the stretch between Wahkaji and Mawthabah, about 130km the state capital, where Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) and Meghalaya government plan to mine uranium. A visit to the uranium mining sites reveals the stark division in clans and families — some opposing uranium mining and others supporting it. A majority of the land in the uranium mining sites in this stretch belong to the Lyngdoh-Langrin and the Lyngdoh-Sangriang clans. While some members of these clans have parted with their land to UCIL on lease, others are unwilling to do so. A majority is blaming UCIL and state government besides the NGOs sponsored by them for creating confusion over the mining project. Eudora Lyngdoh, 50, a member of the Lyngdoh-Langrin clan, who had leased out the land to the UCIL along with some other members of clan, said they did so expecting development in these remote areas. “We had worked with the Atomic Mineral Division during the drilling period at Domiasiat, in 1984, a uranium mining site, but there were no ill effects,” Lyngdoh said. However a 90-year-old woman from the same clan, Spillity Lyngdoh, begs to differ. Though she had a plot in Domiasiat, she decided not to part with it. Most villagers are still in the dark about development projects to be taken up by UCIL at the mining sites as approved by the Meghalaya cabinet on August 24. Lesbillian Lyngdoh-Langrin, for instance, feels the views of the majority should be respected as far as the issue of actual mining of uranium is concerned. A Wahkaji resident, Naphang Lyngksor, said during the public hearing on June 12 at Nongbah Jynrin organised by Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board, a majority had opposed uranium mining. Some landowners from Lyngdoh-Sangriang at Mawthabahnow regret their decision of handing over land to UCIL for mining of uranium. “I regret leasing out land to the UCIL and I did so only because of my nephew,” said 60-year-old Yonder Lyngdoh-Sangriang from Mawthabah. Yonder also said most people were not aware of projects worth Rs 209 core approved by the government recently. “We read about it only in newspapers. Nobody has come to inform us about this,” he said. |
Mining project unearths rift in Meghalaya
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Sinlung
