Several organisations from Assam’s Dima Hasao district, led by the Opposition Congress, met governor L.P. Acharya on Tuesday seeking his intervention to “halt” a proposed mining project spanning 9,000 bighas as it will lead to “displacement of indigenous people from their ancestral lands” besides affecting the ecology.

A joint eight-page memorandum was submitted by the Dima Hasao’s Karbi Students Association (KSA), Mining Area Affected People Association (MAAPA), Kopili Area Mining Affected PeopleAssociation (KAMAPA) and a two-page memorandum was submitted by the Congress during the hour-long interaction with the governor at the Raj Bhawan in Guwahati on Tuesday evening, both articulating the same concerns and demands.

In its memorandum, signed by PCC president Bhupen Kumar Borah and CLP leader Debabrata Saikia, the Congress has flagged the concern over the “large geographical area being proposed for handover to facilitate this mining project, while accusing chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma of “making moves to allocate approximately 9000 bighas of land in the Dima Hasao district to benefit a corporate group with close ties to the BJP”.

It has not named the group in the memorandum. Assam has a BJP-led government since 2016.

“We want the mining project cancelled. Eight villages were among the 18 villages which were displaced due to the NEEPCO hydel project in 1976. If the project is not cancelled, we will be displaced again,” Teron said.

These concerns were articulated in the Congress memorandum.