SHILLONG, AUG 1: Following stiff opposition, the Atomic Minerals Directorate (AMD) today announced its decision to withdraw its “research” operations in uranium-rich areas of Meghalaya.
This was informed by the AMD regional director Sandeep Hamilton and deputy regional director Dr Rahul Banerjee after a meeting convened by the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) held here on Wednesday.
“We have taken a conscious decision after seeing the situation and the sentiments of the people. Now we have stopped our work and we have completely closed down our operations in Meghalaya,” Hamilton told reporters here.
The KHADC has summoned the AMD officials after allegations that the department had taken up exploratory drilling of uranium in areas under South West Khasi Hills District without getting any permission from the state government and the Council.
Three of its officials were also injured and the vehicles they were travelling were also damaged and burnt when they were attacked by a group of miscreants at Wahkaji on July 25.
Asked, Himilton said that under the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 allows the department to work anywhere in India and that only permission of local landowner if at all required to seek for the collection of samples.
On the other hand, AMD deputy regional director Dr Rahul Banerjee said that the purpose of the visit to Wahkaji was to take sub-surface samples.
“We were doing small boreholes of 20-30 meters to extract some samples for doing Research and Development for laboratory purpose, analysis and microscopic studies,” he said.
Stating that AMD is not involved in uranium mining activities, Banerjee said that AMD is not a mining agency, it is only for conducting research on atomic minerals which not only include uranium.
“AMD and the Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) are two different entities. AMD is purely a central organization whereas UCIL is a public sector undertaking. AMD has no mandate for mining and our work ends after search and research of atomic minerals,” he added.
Stating that people have mistaken them as those coming from the UCIL, Banerjee said that they were not aware that such incident would happened otherwise they would not have gone to Wahkaji.
When asked whether they have informed the district authorities before taking up such research work in areas considered to be “sensitive”, the deputy regional director however said that AMD is a pan India organization and such type of exploration activities are being carried out in the different states.
“We have annual field season programme and our department informs every state’s chief secretary about the work that is going to be taken up in those areas. That intimation goes to every state and chief secretary and as far as we require any assistance or help or any type of support then we certainly go to the district administration to seek their permission and help,” he said.
Earlier, the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU), which is one of the anti-uranium groups, have demanded the state government to direct the AMD to immediately stop the uranium drilling activities at Mawthabah Nongbah Jynrin failing which the Union will be compelled to take stern action.
By Our Reporter
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