By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: From the look of things it appears that the much awaited Meghalaya Mineral Policy (MMP) is set to miss its date with the Assembly session scheduled for September this year.
The Cabinet, which met on Wednesday, has once again kept in abeyance any discussion on the MMP. The Supreme Court has directed the State Government to draft a Mining Policy in 2005. It is now 2012 but the policy remains in draft form.
Deputy Chief Minister BM Lanong, who also holds mining portfolio, speaking at a function in a city college recently had mentioned that the Mineral Policy would soon be passed. He, however, passed the buck to the Chief Minister saying, “The Policy is lying in the Chief Minister’s Secretariat. It is no longer in my hands. We have consulted the stakeholders (coal mine owners) and have included their suggestions.”
Political commentators believe the Government is adopting delaying tactics to approve the policy as they fear that it might have strong repercussions during the upcoming elections. “The policy concerns the interests of the coal barons who are actually running the Government,” said an environmental activist.
It was expected that that the much-needed Mineral Policy would receive the Cabinet’s nod on Wednesday. But the issue was shelved yet again. Sources in the Mining and Geology department had earlier indicated that the Policy is likely to be approved in the upcoming Cabinet meeting.
“Everything is in place, the Policy only requires the approval of the Cabinet,” sources said.
When scribes asked Chief Minister, Dr Mukul Sangma after the Cabinet meeting why the Policy was not cleared, he said there were certain issues which required to be addressed by the concerned department.
Before placing the issue in the Cabinet, the Chief Minister said there would be a presentation on the Mineral Policy.
‘A presentation followed by discussion on the Policy would minimise the time taken by the Cabinet in deliberating the issues concerning the Mining Policy,” Dr Sangma stated, adding that the Government has fixed August 16 for the presentation of the policy before taking it to the Cabinet.
Dr Sangma, however, left more room for doubt when he said, “If the presentation requires further modification, the Department will be asked to modify it.”
Under Section 8 of the MMP under the sub-heading ‘Mineral Exploration,’ Section 8.6 says – “Small and traditional system of mining by local people in their own land shall not be unnecessarily disturbed.” If this draft is passed with this clause which was included after a discussion with the mine owners, it will nullify all the other grand objectives as it allows the miners to circumvent the Act on the plea that they are carrying out small scale mining, said a mining engineer.
The MMP is expected to put in place measures to curb illegal extraction of minerals, to ensure the safety of miners and to help obviate environmental degradation, amongst others.