Shillong, Oct 15: Former Tourism Minister Paul Lyngdoh today said a lack of communication from the state government was contributing to the gap over the proposed Shillong ropeway project, even as he defended the environmental clearances obtained for it.
Lyngdoh has never concealed his unhappiness at being removed from his ministerial berth last year; his position as Tourism Minister was taken by Timothy D Shira.
Responding to objections raised by the joint action committee (JAC) against the project, Lyngdoh said the government needed to communicate better with the public, pointing out that officials had not come forward to address the concerns, according to press reports he had seen.
“That is the only problem. I was always talking. I keep talking. I’m talking to you right now. So I think that is what is lacking. It is communication,” he said.
Lyngdoh said that the necessary environmental clearances had been sought and obtained in 2022, when he was an MDC in the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) and not an MLA in the Assembly (to which he was elected in 2023).
He said further clearances were subsequently obtained from the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, adding that the local dorbars and the local MLA had not raised objections at any stage.
Questioning the timing of the opposition, Lyngdoh said the concerns could have been raised in any of the preceding years. “I do not generally prejudge people. I do not know if they have perused all the relevant documents or they have been guided properly,” he said, while emphasising that there was a reasonable timeframe within which objections or complaints should be raised.
On concerns over the felling of trees for the project and whether planting trees elsewhere could compensate for the loss of green cover in Lum Shyllong, Lyngdoh unconvincingly said he was confident that due diligence had been carried out. Hundreds of trees have been cut down for the project and the government’s compensatory reforestation is set to take place in a different district.
He also questioned whether the President of India would have agreed to lay the foundation stone of a project that violated basic environmental safeguards, given that her name was associated with the event.
