The plan to mine uranium in Meghalaya to address the needs of the nuclear industry in India has run into opposition and protests in the state. A complicated story featuring the opposition led by the Khasi Students Union emerges as one delves into the issue. Placing an active source of rent in a region with not one but several established insurgencies is fundamentally a flawed idea.
Rich uranium deposits, a major element in nuclear power generation and its related activities, has been found in the Bhima river belt of Karnataka, ranging from Sedam in Gulbarga district to Muddebihal in Bijapur district. This is as per the intensive survey conducted by the Department of Atomic Energy.
Despite the Congress-led Meghalaya United Alliance (MUA) coalition government forming the Joint Committee on Uranium Mining (JCOUM) to look into various issues including the health and environment aspects of mining, the Congress continues to bat for mining.
SHILLONG: AICC secretary in charge Meghalaya Retd Major Ved Prakash has said that even without mining of uranium, the people residing in the mining areas of West Khasi Hills are still exposed to radio-active rays which might have an adverse impact on their health.
Mumbai: Cirus, the 40 mw research reactor at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (Barc), will be shut down by December 2010 and decommissioned as per the separation plan under the Indo-US civil nuclear deal.
SHILLONG, Nov 9: Division in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is increasingly getting apparent over the uranium mining issue in the State as three of its members have openly showed their support to the project even though the party stated that it would favour establishing a consensus on the issue.
The chips have gone higher in the controversial uranium mining project in Meghalaya with the State Government announcing that a whopping Rs 2,098 crore would be pumped in to develop roads in the impoverished district.
