Meghalaya: HITO slams NPP youth wing for “twisting facts” to revive uranium mining debate

The Hynniewtrep Integrated Territorial Organization (HITO) has come down heavily on the National People’s Youth Front (NPYF) for what it described as a reckless and misleading attempt to revive the uranium mining issue in Meghalaya by misinterpreting a recent Office Memorandum (OM) of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), issued on September 8, 2025.

In a strongly worded statement, HITO recalled the turbulent history of the Wahkaji uranium mining episode, which began with the Cabinet decision of August 24, 2009, under late D.D. Lapang, to lease 422 hectares of land at Nongbah Jynrin in South West Khasi Hills to the Uranium Corporation of India Ltd. (UCIL) for pre-project activities. 

The move sparked massive protests, widespread arrests, injuries, property damage, and social unrest. Eventually, on August 1, 2016, the Cabinet led by Dr. Mukul Sangma revoked both the pre-project activities and the lease, formally communicating the decision to UCIL, thereby closing the matter permanently.

Also Read: Meghalaya footballer Ibaihun Kurbah passes away at 20 after battle with kidney failure

HITO stressed that the new MoEFCC OM does not reopen the uranium chapter in Meghalaya. Instead, it merely exempts certain atomic and strategic mineral mining projects from public hearings under the EIA Notification, 2006, while retaining all other safeguards such as population impact assessments, provision of drinking water, sanitation, medical facilities, skill development measures, grievance redressal mechanisms, and adequate resources for environmental and social management plans.

“The OM is no blank cheque for uranium mining,” HITO asserted, accusing the NPYF of either gross ignorance or deliberate distortion. The organization reminded that uranium mining falls under the jurisdiction of the Union Ministry of Mines and the Department of Atomic Energy, and no project can proceed without the consent of landowners and traditional authorities such as the Rangbah Shnong and the Sordar.

HITO went on to call the NPYF’s move “political opportunism” aimed at pleasing its “Delhi masters,” while insulting the sacrifices of those who resisted uranium mining in the past. “To mislead the people without even understanding Clause 6 of the very OM they are citing only exposes the hollowness of their stand,” it said.

The organization demanded that the NPYF immediately withdraw its memorandum and stop using the uranium issue as a political gimmick. HITO warned that any attempt to revive uranium mining in Meghalaya would be met with the same united resistance that forced UCIL out nearly a decade ago.