No use of visiting Sikkim ,& Shimla to assess ropeway:JAC

Shillong, Nov 12: The Joint Action Committee against the Shillong Ropeway Project has rejected the government’s proposal to take its members to Sikkim and Shimla to see ropeways.

They said  Lum Shyllong cannot be compared with any other hill station.

JAC president Deborah Marbaniang said the committee had made its stand clear to Tourism Minister Paul Lyngdoh.

“We told Tourism Minister Bah Paul Lyngdoh, we have no interest, Bah Paul Lyngdoh, in going to see tourism ropeways in Shimla or anywhere else, because we in the JAC are not foolish people who will just believe whatever he says, to go for a trip here and there,” she said.

“You cannot compare that place Shimla with the state of Meghalaya. The state of Meghalaya is totally different from Shimla, because that Lum Shyllong is the one that gives food, gives water to the whole city of Shillong, it gives electricity. If Lum Shyllong is destroyed, Shillong is finished,” she added.

When asked whether the JAC will join the government for an inspection of the ropeway site, Marbaniang questioned the purpose of such an exercise.

“What is the use of going for an inspection, when even the water source behind the ropeway, that water used to flow in the monsoon and in winter, but since the trees were cut, now it has dried up,” she said.

“The water source — now fire brigade water tankers and water supply vehicles come to fetch water — has dried up. What is the use of going for an inspection anymore?” she asked.