Shillong ropeway: JAC marches to Secretariat as Shullai seeks expert probe

The row over the Shillong Peak ropeway moved onto the streets of the state capital on Thursday, November 12. Women of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) marched to the Meghalaya Secretariat demanding that the project be scrapped. On the same day, Cabinet Minister and South Shillong MLA Sanbor Shullai took a very different proposal to the Chief Minister's office: an independent expert probe into the JAC's water fears.

A meeting that ended in chaos

The JAC had agreed to meet Shullai on Wednesday, November 11, while insisting its protest would go on. The meeting, organised by the 19-South Shillong Advisory Committee at the State Convention Centre, quickly turned acrimonious, according to an IANS report carried by The Shillong Times. Opponents of the project refused to consider the minister's proposal, and Shullai ended the meeting with no consensus.

Shillong Today reported that women opposing the project surrounded the MLA and he left the venue abruptly. After the meeting, Shullai alleged the protest was politically instigated. He named Vinetia Mawlong, who he said had contested against him as a Congress candidate in the last Assembly election, as being at the forefront of the agitation.

The march: "Tourism can go elsewhere"

On Thursday, the JAC marched under tight security from its protest venue near the U Kiang Nangbah statue to the Secretariat, Hub News reported. Women led the march with placards reading "tourism can go elsewhere, our catchment cannot" and "development without wisdom is destruction with a budget".

The protesters demanded that seven Rangbah Shnongs (traditional village headmen) of the Laban area step down and that the land lease agreement they signed with the Tourism Department be revoked. JAC leaders said they would intensify their agitation until the government agrees to scrap the ropeway or move it elsewhere.

Shullai's counter: let experts decide

Leading the South Shillong Advisory Committee, Shullai submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma's office, Hub News reported. It asks for an expert technical committee drawn from leading institutions, including IITs and NITs, to study whether the ropeway would harm water sources on U Lum Shyllong (Shillong Peak).

"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," Shullai said. He called the JAC's account of how the meeting ended "false and baseless" and said the Chief Minister, who is on tour, would meet his committee next week.

The memorandum warns that delay will raise the project's cost, and that scrapping the ropeway without substantial scientific evidence, against what it calls the wishes of most stakeholders, would hurt development in South Shillong.

A police complaint against JAC members

The confrontation has also reached the police. A resident of Lower Lumparing, Ladaphila Kharbuli, filed a complaint at Laban Police Station on Wednesday accusing JAC members of defaming her son and son-in-law, Hub News reported. She said the two men stepped in to shield the minister when some JAC members tried to stop him leaving. She alleged JAC members later called them "gangsters" in a video. Police have not said whether a case has been registered.

How the dispute got here

The 913-metre ropeway is being built by the Meghalaya Ropeway Development Authority to link Madan Laban with Shillong Peak, funded by the New Development Bank and the Centre's PM-DevINE scheme. The JAC's core fear is that the lower terminal at Riat Laban and the towers could damage springs that feed local households.

The government says those fears have been examined. At a public consultation on November 4, officials cited a Public Health Engineering Department assessment that found no impact on water sources. On Wednesday the Tourism Department renewed its offer of talks.

The protest has widened since the JAC began its indefinite sit-in in early November. Police reopened the site after the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council sealed it, and Lyngdoh has said the project cannot be withdrawn. The JAC has threatened to seek his resignation, and groups including HITO and a city federation of women's organisations have backed the protesters.

What to watch

The next step is Shullai's meeting with the Chief Minister next week, and whether the government sets up an expert panel the JAC is willing to accept. NEInsider will also follow any police action on the defamation complaint.