Shillong, Sept 22, 2025 — The Hynniewtrep Integrated Territorial Organization (HITO) has strongly condemned what it described as a “reckless and misleading” attempt by the National People’s Youth Front (NPYF) to revive the uranium mining debate in Meghalaya.

In a press release issued on Monday, HITO accused the NPYF of twisting the recent Office Memorandum (OM) of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) dated September 8, 2025. The OM exempts certain atomic, critical and strategic mineral projects from public hearings under the EIA Notification, 2006, but retains all other environmental and social safeguards.

“HITO asserts that the OM does not reopen the Wahkaji or Nongbah Jynrin chapter, which was decisively closed by the 2016 Cabinet decision to revoke UCIL’s lease,” the statement said, referring to the 422-hectare land lease granted to the Uranium Corporation of India Ltd. (UCIL) in 2009 for pre-project development at Wahkaji. The lease and project approval were cancelled by the Cabinet headed by Dr. Mukul Sangma following widespread protests that saw mass arrests, injuries and property damage.

The organization also stressed that no uranium project can proceed in Meghalaya without the explicit consent of landowners, traditional village authorities, and local governance institutions.

Calling the NPYF’s move “political opportunism” as the youth wing of the ruling NPP, HITO warned that any fresh attempt to revive uranium mining would be met with “the same united resistance that forced UCIL to withdraw in the first place.”

HITO has demanded that NPYF immediately withdraw its memorandum and refrain from using the uranium issue as a “political gimmick.”