Daistong: KSU, cement plant workers trade violence claims; SP orders probe

Police in Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills have ordered an inquiry after the Khasi Students' Union (KSU) and workers at the proposed Shree Cement plant at Daistong made opposing allegations of violence on Saturday, November 7.

Superintendent of Police Shailender Bamaniya said the inquiry will be led by an Additional Superintendent of Police and will examine both accounts to establish the sequence of events, Highland Post reported.

The KSU's account

A KSU Central Executive Council team had gone to Daistong to back residents opposing Shree Cement Limited's proposed limestone mining and integrated cement plant. The Shillong Times reported that on the way back in the afternoon, the union said a group of men carrying machetes stopped the delegation, leading to a heated face-off.

According to the union, the men then moved towards a police camp set up in the area to guard the project site. KSU leaders followed and demanded that the police produce the men, which led to a second argument, this time with police personnel. KSU general secretary Reuben Najiar later called the East Jaintia Hills SP and asked him to step in.

Highland Post quoted Najiar as claiming that one man tried to kill a union member. He said the KSU would file a complaint seeking the arrest of everyone involved and that the union had video evidence. The union also asked how an armed group could confront its leaders in an area where police were posted.

The workers' account

Workers at the site gave a different version. Highland Post reported that two workers, Miki Sukhlain and Khreh Sukhlain, said KSU leaders entered the factory premises at Kharrasiang Lumpyrshing in Daistong at about 3.30 pm, and that workers were then assaulted with a dao and stones and threatened with death.

Neither side's claims had been independently verified when the reports were published. NEInsider will update this story once the police inquiry reports.

Questions over the fact-finding panel

At a meeting in the village before the incident, KSU president Raymond Kharjana questioned why the fact-finding committee set up by the state government had held its hearing in Shillong instead of visiting Daistong and meeting affected residents.

Highland Post said the committee was notified on September 8 to look into the disruption of the July 31 public hearing called by the Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board, and into the environmental, social, legal and criminal aspects of the project.

Village headman Philemon Sukhlain told the meeting that residents were losing hope and alleged that the project was being pushed by a section of village leaders without the full consent of the community. Najiar said the union's own findings showed that existing cement factories in the area had not improved local lives, which he said was why residents opposed another one.

Opposition to the Daistong plant has run for months. In August, the state government ordered a status quo on work at the site after protests led by the KSU.