High Court seeks to know why KSU & six villages opposed use of Mynkjai dumping ground

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaApril 20, 2022

In an unexpected turn of event, the High Court of Meghalaya on Wednesday seek to know the mind of the Khasi Students Union Moopyut Unit and the six villages for their opposition to the use of Mynkjai dumping ground, West Jaintia Hills District.

This is as per order of the Court for PIL No. 6/2022 Synjuk Ki Waheh Shnong Jowai Vs State of Meghalaya & 5 Ors.

The Jowai Municipal Board who was directed to file an affidavit in the first hearing of the PIL submitted the same in the hearing.

The Board informed March, 2021, an NGO by the name of Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) of Moopyut village along with six other villages – Pynthor Langtein, Umsalang, Shhen Pyrsit, Moopyut Madan Tyrpait, Moosakhia and Sohmynting – attempted to close the dumping site at Mynkjai. Though an agreement was entered into for temporary dumping at the site for three months, since no alternative dumping site has been identified by the task force constituted by the Urban Affairs Department of the State along with the Jowai Municipal
Board, the collection of garbage has altogether come to a standstill.

The Khasi Students’ Union of Moopyut village along with the headmen of Moopyut village and the six other villages abovenamed are added as parties. The Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council is represented and claims that it has not received a copy of the petition. A copy of the petition will be forwarded to Advocate representing the District Council in course of the day.

The District Council will cause copies of this order and copies of the petition to be served on the added parties, preferably, in course of the day with the intimation that the matter will appear on April 22, 2022.

The Court also viewed that State of Meghalaya, as in most other cases, washes its hands off and says that it had no role to play in civic affairs.

It is somewhat disturbing that there is a serious menace of garbage piling up in one of the major towns in the State, something that may lead to disease and disaster, and the State administration seeks only to play the fiddle.

The State administration and the District Council should meet at the highest level in course of the day to try and suggest an immediate remedy so that the garbage can be collected and Jowai town cleaned if only to ensure that major diseases do not break out, particularly water-borne diseases since it has been raining continuously for the past several days.