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| Uranium: Union calls blockade; State govt says no going back |
| Press Trust of India / Shillong Oct 13, 2009, 13:22 IST |
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The Khasi Students Union (KSU) has announced a two-day night road blockade beginning tomorrow to protest against the proposed uranium mining project in Meghalaya, while the state government said it would go ahead with the project.
The powerful KSU decided in a meeting last evening to intensify its agitation by enforcing the blockade from 9 pm to 5 am on October 14 and 15 to protest the government decision to lease land to Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL).
The KSU has been claiming that the uranium project would harm the environment.
Chief Minister DD Lapang, however, maintained that the government was going ahead with its plans saying the uranium reserves were a 'national property' and 'no one can stop the government from using them'.
"The government has waited for 20 long years to persuade the people. How long will they protest? There is no going back on the decision to lease land to UCIL (in the uranium rich areas of West Khasi Hill district) for pre-project development activities," Lapang told reporters last night.
Lapang, who arrived from New Delhi yesterday, said he apprised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about the status of the project and the protests launched by different groups.
He said Singh assured him to consider the state's demand for more funds to develop the entire district instead of going for pre-project developmental activities only in mining areas.
"We have submitted a proposal to the Centre for developing at least 10 key roads, health centres and sports facilities besides others," Lapang said, adding that the 422 hectares of land leased to the UCIL hardly had any human habitat and the people in the West Khasi Hills district where the project is proposed also need to be benefited.
The KSU has earlier picketed government offices, organised rallies and burnt effigies in stepped up offensive against the project.
"The government was trying to bulldoze the rights of the people which is against the principle of democracy," KSU president Samuel Jyrwa said.
Last month, the state government had given its nod to UCIL to go ahead with pre-project development works in 422 hectares of land in the uranium-rich areas of West Khasi Hills, where, according to a survey by Atomic Minerals Division, there are over 16,000 tonnes of uranium ore.
The mining issue in Meghalaya has been hanging fire for more than two decades now with some prominent NGOs and political parties vehemently opposed to the proposal on the grounds that it would lead to degradation of the environment and cause severe health hazards besides opening the floodgates for outsiders into the tribal state.
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