The Hill State People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP) today informed that its meeting with the North East Director of the Atomic Minerals Directorate (AMD) revealed that the central government has no plans to further explore Meghalaya’s deposits of uranium.
The subject of uranium was raised in Parliament yesterday where it was stated that the Centre was planning for exploratory mining in parts of Meghalaya, which has an estimated 23,268 tonnes of uranium under the surface.
The AMD’s Prakhar Kumar had told the HSPDP that the central government had discontinued its pursuit of uranium mining in Meghalaya after the previous state government had revoked the lease for pre-mining activities on the 422 hectare site in Domiasiat, West Khasi Hills in August 2016.
The AMD is, however, exploring other sites in the North East for uranium.
HSPDP president KP Pangniang said that Kumar had stated that the willingness of the people is necessary before the Centre would go ahead with uranium mining in the state.
Meanwhile, Pangniang said that there has been no final report into the leaking uranium effluent tanks, which grabbed headlines in 2020.
“Till now we have not got a clear report and we want the government to give us clear information that no such leakage is in that area,” he said.
