Shillong,Jan 21: The coal mining areas in East Jaintia Hills will be rejuvenated through environment- friendly initiatives.
The Block Resource Management Committee (BRMC) based in East Jaintia Hills and Community Resource based-Organization (CRBO) that was established as a community institution under the erstwhile aegis of Meghalaya Rural Development Society (MRDS) a state flagship organisation in collaboration with IFAD funded livelihood project LIPH, have been successfully implementing a pilot intervention on Alternative Livelihood Programme through a Community Livelihood Improvement Project-CLIP in the district for ten affected villages.
A statement in this regard said that anti-coal mining activities have been initiated with the active support of the district administration, besides the experts like Naba Bhattacharjee, Technical Advisor on Forests and Environment along with B. Wahlang who is the CCF and Member, along with officials from Mining and Geology B.S.Sohliya and M.Tongper Director DMR, have been at the threshold of brainstorming the activities that could be initiated in the coal mining affected villages.
As part of its commitment towards the rural communities in the district, the BRMC has been able to initiate and implement the project supported under the Meghalaya Environmental Protection Restoration Fund (MEPRF) in line with the direction of the Meghalaya High Court to address and implement livelihood activities for the affected villages. As part of the initial intervention, the BRMC recently conducted a one-day capacity building training program at Jalaphet Bri Sumer, Mynthlu, Kairang, Iongkaluh and other villages that are part of the intervention. The project focuses on training local farmers’ men and women into Farmers Producer Group (FPG) who’s farming activities have been affected by the ban on coal mining).
The training exercise was conducted by Randolph Langstieh who heads the Social Work Department at Captain Williamson Sangma, State University Meghalaya along with the team of the BRMC. The support and equal participation of the village headmen and members of the local community is seen as a positive sign in support of the project and many have come forward to understand the project’s intervention that would help in addressing their needs and priorities in the coming months ahead. At Iongkaluh a training on propagation of Oyster Mushroom was also initiated which gained a lot of interests especially amongst the women members of Pynroilang Farmers Producer Group while a similar training has been planned out for other villages within the project. The BRMC is headed by a 10- member team comprising Dominic Wankhar as Chairman of th Block Committee Secretaryz Andy M. Laloo , Vice-Chairman Hao-emlad Patwet, and other subject matter experts.
