Shillong, March 8 Expressing its strong displeasure, the Meghalaya High Court ahas asked the state Chief Secretary to ensure that illegal coal mining activities are stopped at once and a committee free from political interference be set up to monitor the execution of Supreme Court and National Green Tribunal's directions and recommendations.
A three-member bench of the High Court led by Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee asked Chief Secretary R.V. Suchiang to take immediate steps to stop the rampant illegal coal mining in the state.
Following a media report, the three judges, the Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police recently visited the East Jaintia Hills district for an on the spot verification of the activities of the illegal coal mining.
The High Court judges, referring to their field visit, said that on the road from Khliehriat to Amlarem, about a kilometre or two from the Silchar-Shillong National Highway, there is a vantage point from where one can see the valley below. "The lower ground is riddled with rigs and tell-tale signs of mining activities and recently constructed huts. Even along the stretch, for tens of miles, freshly mined coal is dumped on both sides of the road in plain view. Going by the illegal activities only around the Khliehriat region, it appears that the practice is rampant and may be even more intense in areas which are not easily accessible."
It is evident that the directions issued by the Supreme Court have not been adhered to, said the High Court in its order, passed on Monday.
"It is alarming that District Magistrates, Sub-Divisional Officers and even Block Level Officers are in place along with their counterparts from the police right up to the Superintendent of Police, but all of them turn a Nelson's eye to such illegal activities," it said.
The bench directed that a committee may be set up to monitor the implementation of the directions and recommendations and the committee must have the freedom and authority to function without any political interference.
The matter would again be taken up by the court on April 4.
Environmental activists in Meghalaya and Assam have said that despite the orders and recommendations of the Supreme Court and the NGT, banning the indiscriminate and hazardous rat hole coal mining in Meghalaya, the mining continued unlawfully and exported to Bangladesh and other places with the authorities turning a blind eye.
In April 2014, the NGT had banned the indiscriminate and hazardous rat hole coal mining in Meghalaya. Occasionally many workers were trapped in the illegal and unsafe mines and subsequently died - five in May-June last year, with only three bodies retrieved from the flooded coal mine after hectic efforts for over 27 days, while in December 2018, in a major tragedy in the same district, 15 migrant miners from Assam died inside in an abandoned coal mine. Their bodies were never found.
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