SHILLONG, June 9 – Uranium Corporation of India Ltd (UCIL) has claimed that land owners in Meghalaya’s Domiasiat area have given their consent for mining of the radioactive mineral, reports PTI.
“We have interacted with the land owners and they have given their consent in principle,” UCIL chairman and managing director R Gupta told reporters here on Sunday. The UCIL claim came in the backdrop of a visit by a high-level team comprising Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar, Gupta and others to Domiasiat, about 150 km from here on Friday. Several social organisations in Shillong have been spearheading a movement against uranium mining citing health hazards and influx of outsiders.
Gupta said the consent of the land owners was a “step forward” for setting up UCIL project in Meghalaya’s West Khasi Hills district. He also expressed happiness that the local people were ‘cooperating’ with the UCIL. Land in tribal-dominated Meghalaya belongs to the people and for setting up of any project their consent was regarded crucial.
Gupta said UCIL was now interacting with the state authorities and would do so with the Autonomous District Council at an appropriate time. Kakodkar, also secretary in the Department of Atomic Energy, said it wanted to go ahead with the project and would make an honest effort in this regard.