Shillong, Nov 12: A vocal supporter of the Shillong Ropeway Project, local MLA and cabinet minister Sanbor Shullai on Thursday submitted a proposal to the Chief Minister, seeking an independent expert committee to probe into claims of devastating environmental impact of the project.
“Those who supported the proposal for an expert committee have come to submit the proposal,” said Shullai, chairman of the South Shillong Advisory Committee, after handing over the papers to Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma’s office.
The committee passed the resolution for the demand for an expert committee in a meeting on Wednesday.
“Yesterday, we placed it before all the Dorbar Shnongs, stakeholders and the JAC, but instead of discussing the proposal, they created havoc in the meeting,” he mentioned.
He said the Chief Minister, who is on tour, will meet the committee next week to discuss the proposal.
The minister dismissed the JAC’s allegation that the meeting abruptly ended as a fabrication.
On the JAC’s march, Shullai said he would not comment, insisting that those who accompanied him to submit the memorandum were genuine residents of Laban and 19th South Shillong.
The memorandum asks for an expert technical committee drawn from the country’s best institutions, including IITs and NITs, to conduct a detailed, independent study of the JAC’s concerns.
It also warns that continued delay will push up the project cost and hit the public exchequer, and that scrapping the project without substantial scientific evidence, against the sentiments of the majority of stakeholders, would amount to disrupting development in 19-South Shillong.
