Shillong, Aug 18: The Jaintia Students’ Union (JSU) filed an application before the National Green Tribunal (NGT), Eastern Zone Bench in Kolkata, challenging Shree Cement’s proposed 217.394-hectare mining project in Jaintia Hills.
A JSU delegation led by Education Secretary Bocheru Mi Pohsnem, with President Jersom Shylla and Assistant Finance Secretary Wansalan Dame Patwet, submitted evidence after a two-day verification process in Kolkata.
The union said its 10-day ultimatum to the Meghalaya government over complaints and FIRs ended with “zero action.” It accused the state government, police and allied departments of deliberate inaction.
Arguing for equal standards, JSU said if the NGT could ban local coal mining for environmental reasons, the same must apply to the corporate project. “We are bringing this fight to the NGT to expose a devastating double standard,” the union stated.
JSU also announced it will move the High Court of Meghalaya seeking accountability for “gross dereliction of duty.”
Pohsnem warned, “If the High Court dismisses our plight and treats the indigenous citizens of Jaintia Hills like cockroaches, we will show them the true power of cockroaches. We will survive, we will multiply, and we will paralyze the very machinery that seeks to destroy us and our ancestral lands. Do not test our resilience. The youth is watching.”
The petition included video evidence, allegedly showing a pregnant woman blocked on a dug-up road at Daistong while seeking emergency care, a night attack on a JSU ambulance, and supporters damaging PWD roads to obstruct protesters at a public hearing.
JSU said it stands with the people of Jaintia Hills and urged departments to act immediately, warning of “massive, democratic measures” if justice is not delivered.
