JOWAI: Coal miners, thousands of them, working in various coal mines spread across East Jaintia Hills District, are a confused and upset lot ever since the NGT ban on rate-hole mining came into effect in Meghalaya.
The ban has not only affected mine owners, labourers and truck operators, but also severely crippled the income generation of petty shop keepers, and the general public in the mineral rich district.
Hundreds of coal miners from Assam have already left the district and scores of others are expected to return back to their native places. Labourers hailing from Nepal are, however, in a severe state of crisis and idling away in their respective camps expecting the ban to be lifted soon so that they may resume earning their daily bread. “The ban has affected us severely; we are now jobless and we do not know what to do,” said a coal miner, Bhupendra Pande, who has been working in the coal mines since the time he was 12 years old.
“We had not saved any money and the ban has come suddenly; we don’t even have enough money to go back to Nepal,” said Nishan Rai, another labourer who has been rendered jobless following the ban on mining.
A woman informed that the ban has affected several women who have been earning their livelihood working in the coal depots. Women are mostly engaged in separating slates and stone from the coal before they are loaded into the trucks. The drivers pay them Rs. 200 for each truck load helping them earn around Rs. 400 to Rs. 600 per day.
Shopkeepers are also upset over the NGT ban and claim that it has badly affected their markets. Busiest market places such as Ladrymbai and Sohkymphor among others in the coal mining area have also been affected.