The South West Khasi Hills district administration has decided to send a team to Nongbah Jynrin village to ascertain the authenticity of a reported “explosion” of a storage tank of the Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL).
“We have also got the story of the reported explosion of a storage tank at Nongbah Jynrin. We have spoken to some of the people residing in villages nearby Nongbah Jynrin but they are not aware of it,” Deputy Commissioner, South West Khasi district, Caramai Kharkongor said over phone.
“If such an explosion had taken place, people residing in those areas would have moved out to safer grounds. Nonetheless, we are sending a team to ascertain the fact of the matter,” she said. Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) general secretary Donald Thabah said, “The tank storing the toxic effluents of the 1993 uranium exploratory mining in Nongbah Jynrin exploded on Monday.”
He said the information was received from the people residing in those areas.
On the other hand, KSU South West Khasi Hills district president, Forwardman Nongrem recalled that the storage tank of the UCIL had cracked in the past and emitted foul smell.
Deputy Regional Director, North Eastern Region, Atomic Mineral Division, Kamlesh Kumar said that they have not received any such report as the AMD has winded up its set-up at Nongbah Jynrin many years ago.
“If there is anything like that (explosion) we would surely go to the area,” Kumar said.
Meanwhile, villagers told Highland Post that they have not heard of any explosion even as many of them have gone to the area to fish from a nearby river.
