Ban on rat hole mining: NGT to hear case today

SHILLONG: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) will hold the hearing on rat hole mining in New Delhi on Monday even as the State government has ruled out any open cast mining as per the draft mining plan submitted to the NGT and also to the relevant ministries due to the geography of the State where rat hole mining is in vogue.
Supreme Court lawyer and counsel for the Meghalaya government, Ranjan Mukherjee, said over phone from Delhi on Sunday that as per the mining plan and guidelines, there was no mention on complete ban on rat hole mining since the State government has pushed for the same system to continue with sufficient safeguards.
According to Mukherjee, since coal seam is narrow in the State, open cast mining is not possible.
“During the last hearing we had submitted the mining plan to NGT which in turn suggested the government to send the guidelines to the union ministries of coal and environment to get their nod,” Mukherjee said, adding that some response from the coal ministry can come during Monday’s hearing.
While the transportation of extracted coal will continue till November 30, the last date for submission of challans was on October 31.
The counsel of the government will also submit the cases of violations in the transportation of coal from all the districts especially from East Jaintia Hills to the NGT on Monday.
Last week, speaking to reporters, Chief Secretary Barkos Warjri had expressed doubt over the implementation of mining plan in Meghalaya when asked about the different layers of licenses to be procured by the mine owners as per the mining plan.
“We have small and thin deposits of coal and we have suggested a plan for small holdings. A few mine owners can get together and make a plan with necessary safeguards before carrying out mining,” Warjri had said.
Meghalaya earns Rs.388 crore
The State government has received Rs.258 crore in terms of royalty collected for transportation of already extracted coal since November 2014, while the money collected under the environment restoration fund is Rs.130 crore.