The Jaintia National Council (JNC) on Thursday threatened to march to the Meghalaya Secretariat if the state government fails to respond by May 15 to its objections against what it called an “illegal” Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report submitted by Shree Cement.
In a statement, the JNC expressed serious concern and deep disappointment over the government’s “complete silence” since the council submitted written objections on April 30, 2026, to the Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board, SEIAA Meghalaya, and the MoEF&CC Regional Office in Shillong.
The JNC said the EIA report for the proposed project in East Jaintia Hills “doesn’t match with the State of Meghalaya” and highlighted three violations it said were “admitted and printed in the proponent’s own submitted EIA report.” The first issue, the JNC said, is jurisdictional. “On Page 1 of the Draft EIA report itself, the consultant has written in plain English: ‘The application for the term of reference for the proposed project was considered in the meeting of the Gujarat SEAC, based on the submissions and presentation made by the project proponent in SEAC Gujarat & SEIAA had issued the ToR for the EIA study,’” the statement said.
“This project is in East Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya. The JNC asks, with full public record, How did SEIAA Meghalaya accept and process an EIA document explicitly addressed to a Gujarat authority? Since when does the Government of Meghalaya conduct public hearings on behalf of Gujarat?” the council said. “This is not an allegation, it is printed on the document that was submitted to our own regulatory bodies.”