From Our Correspondent
JOWAI: Acting on a Meghalaya High Court order, a police team led by Deputy Superintendent of Police, W Muksor on Wednesday restrained a group of people from Samasi village from extracting of coal from a village forest in Mynthning area.
These coal mines, which now fall under Samasi village following alleged illegal encroachment, were leased out to some individual including former MLA, Shitlang Pale, Phlim Shylla of Dkhiah West and one Harding Chyrmang.
Mynthning village in East Jaintia Hills District has a rich deposit of coal.
As per the Court order, villagers of Samasi had illegally encroached into the forest area of Mynthning to extract coal and plant vegetables.
The police team accompanied by elders of Mynthning village including the Rangbah shnong and the village Secretary restrained Samasi people from extracting coal from six coalmines leased out to Pale, Shylla, Chyrmang and others. Police also restrained the Rangbah shnong of Samasi, Jialwis Paslein from utilizing the portion of the forest land to grow vegetables.
“We executed the High Court order of July 16,” Muksor said. “We have served notices on them and asked them to stop working in the land and if they still continue to violate the court order, we will inform the court to take necessary action,” Muksor added.
It may be mentioned here that the Dorbar Shnong of Mynthning village in East Jaintia Hills District had earlier alleged that people from Samasi village encroached into Mynthning area violating court orders.