SHILLONG, MAR 9: The North East Sunshine Trust (India) on Saturday claimed that the letter related to the proposed restarting of uranium mining project in Meghalaya was only in draft form and was never despatched to Dr Jitendra Singh, Minister of State, Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India.
The clarification came a day after the “draft” letter went viral in social media and evoked strong opposition from anti-Uranium groups in the state.
“Please refer to our letter…dated February 26, 2024 addressed to Dr Jitendra Sing, Minister of State, Department of Atomic Energy, GOI. The contents of the above letter were in draft form only and purely meant as part of a preliminary consultative process. It is unfortunate that some unknown persons have decided in their own wisdom, that an independent action has been initiated by our organization towards this project and have attempted to assign unwarranted adverse publicity to our organization,” founder trustee and chairperson of NEST (I) Elizabeth Mathews Nongbri said in a statement to the Shillong Press Club (SPC).
“We are fully seized of the importance and enormity of scale of the project and that the proposal has to follow a mandated chain of vetting at various levels within the Govt of Meghalaya initially. It is confirmed that the letter being a draft only, has not been despatched to the addressee,” she said. She said any inconvenience caused or unintended effect on public sentiment, is deeply regretted.
“We apologize for the thoughtless and premeditated action by known persons who have taken it upon themselves to discredit our organization,” she concluded.