Shillong, June 29: The Uranium Corporation of India Ltd (UCIL) is preparing a white paper on uranium mining to be submitted to the state government at the earliest.
Meghalaya Assembly Speaker and senior United Democratic Party (UDP) leader Bindo Lanong today said the corporation started preparing the report after the government asked for a detailed white paper on the pros and cons of uranium mining.
“We cannot decide whether to go ahead with the mining unless we fully understand its merits and demerits and other details regarding safety measures,” Lanong said.
The white paper is likely to be circulated to all the political parties for their views.
The cabinet will later take up the matter for a final decision.
After the central executive committee meeting of the UDP on Friday, Meghalaya chief minister and UDP president Donkupar Roy said unless a consensus is arrived at, the state government would not go ahead with the mining project.
Roy said there should be a consensus on the issue among the partners in the government and also among the public.
All the coalition partners of the Meghalaya Progressive Alliance (MPA) government had opposed the mining during their election campaigns.
After the formation of the MPA, there was no change of stand on the part of coalition partners on the issue.
The all-party committee on uranium mining, re-constituted by the MPA government with the chief minister as its chairman, will meet on the first week of July to discuss the issues related to uranium mining.
However, the Opposition Congress has opted out of the meeting saying as the AICC was in favour of mining, it endorsed the same view.
Meghalaya PCC president O.L. Nongtdu said there was no need of attending the all-party committee meeting, since the state Congress was not opposed to uranium mining.