By H H Mohrmen
The debate on the pros and cons of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) ban on rat-hole mining continues. It is true the NGT ban has hit the coal mine owners hard. Not surprisingly it has made some organisations and individuals which are against the ban – strange bedfellows. The first organization that reacted when the NGT upheld its ban on rat-hole mining and transportation of coal was the HNLC, which called a bandh in the Khasi Jaintia Hills areas of the state. The strike had no effect whatsoever on the NGT, but it was the common people who suffered and lost one precious day for nothing.
One may as well ask, why and what has the NGT ban got to do with the HNLC? Why would the HNLC want to involve itself in the problem? Or to be precise what is at stake for the organization if the NGT upholds the ban? One would expect the HNLC to support the ban because the people who are beginning to benefit from the ban are those who live in the villages downstream of Lukha and Myntdu rivers. It is also an open secret that militants use these villages as transit points in the border to cross over to their safe haven, but the boss of the HNLC knows very well that there is too much at stake for the organization if the ban continues.
The answer to the question came during the recent police briefing when the state police chief PJP Hanaman categorically stated that the NGT ban has in some way or the other affected the militant groups in Garo hills. Money to the militant groups is like air to anyone of us, they can’t survive without money, so the NGT ban has choked one of the organization’s sources of income. If the statement of the police chief is true, it means that the NGT ban had already had a positive impact in Garo hills, at least in the government’s fight against the militants.
Strange are the way things work in Meghalaya. Sometimes sworn enemies become bedfellows. It is ironic that with regard to the NGT ban on coal, not only the HNLC is against the ban; even the government and the Shillong MP are on the same side of the fence. The Shillong MP Vincent H. Pala has in a letter to the Prime Minister written on June, 23 (ST Pala seeks PM’s intervention to resolve crisis) made his stand clear and warned of a socio-economic turmoil in Meghalaya, including rise in militancy and deep social unrest if the Centre did not take corrective steps to address the crisis arising out of the NGT ban on rat hole mining. The Lok Sabha MP, while seeking immediate rehabilitation package from the Centre for those affected by the ban, has noted that the NGT has to be “halted in its tracks from causing social unrest, economic despondency and increase in insurgency activities”. The letter to the PM also said that “the Centre should review the ban and provide assistance to the affected people and the state of Meghalaya which is also losing revenue on account of the ban.” Pala requested Modi to “kindly save the coal mine owners, workers, migrant labourers and industries.”
When has the Hon’ble MP ever sought a rehabilitation package for people who live downstream of the dead rivers and whose day to day lives have been wrecked by poison draining into their rivers? Perhaps it is also not out of context to ask Pala if he has ever demanded that the Central Government increase the compensation for farmers whose crops and farms were destroyed by natural calamities in different parts of the State on a regular basis. More importantly has he ever demanded compensation for famers who lost their farmlands to mining just because their agricultural fields are located near coal mines or coal stock-yards?
The MP has obviously missed the point by calling the ban unconstitutional because the case is not about land ownership but the right of the people downstream to a clean and pollution free river. Right to clean air and water is not only the citizen’s fundamental rights, but it is also basic human right of an individual. Whoever owns the land has no right to pollute the water or air because nobody can own water and air.
The Shillong Times has on June 27, (EJH police seized coal lade trucks) reported of violation of the NGT ban and the interference of politicians who threatened to punish policemen by transferring them to remote areas. Is this not a case of mafia at work? And our MP dares to demand a rehabilitation package for those involved in coal mining? Rehabilitating coal mine owners is like rewarding the wrong doer, including those who violate the NGT ban. In other words the MP proposes that the Central Government reward them for violating the NGT order. Can the Government trust people who have no respect for the law? In fact the NGT should take cognizance of these violations of its order and also make sure the district heads act on the Tribunal’s order and seal all the mines in the state.
Why would the Government reward them for involving in illegal mining without availing environment clearance and mining leases which in turn destroy the environment? Instead the MP should have suggested that the government come up with a policy to make sure that coal mine owners contribute money to reclaim the environment that they have destroyed.
Our MP’s demand from the Prime Minister that the government rehabilitate the workers and daily labourers is understandable, but how can he propose to rehabilitate coal mine owners and cement industries? Will it be enough if the Government decides to rehabilitate coal mine owners by adding a few crore rupees to their kitty? Is that what he means by rehabilitating the coal mine owners? And how can the government rehabilitate cement industries? Provide them more subsidies? It is a known fact that the cement industries are not going to lose anything in spite of the ban, because they can procure coal from outside the state and the government will subsidize the company their transport costs. How is the Government going to rehabilitate the cement plants which defaulted in paying their electricity bill? Maybe the government should compensate them simply by writing-off their pending dues.
Isn’t it true that Pala had had the opportunity to right the wrongs when he was elected MP from the State for the first time? The ban would not have happened if Pala who was a former junior minister for water resource had done his job and tried to reclaim the polluted rivers. If he would have read the signs and tried to reclaim Kupli, the people who complained to the NGT wouldn’t have had any case to begin with. How can he miss the signs when the water bodies in the vicinity of his own village are polluted? Or perhaps like all those who are involved in the coal mining business, he too thinks that no power in the State or the country can touch them because money can buy anything and they have every right to do whatever they like with their land.
The coal mine owners should be glad that the NGT did not seize the coal which is now lying in the different stockyards but instead allowed them to sell it after the inventory. The NGT could have attached all the coal because the method by which the mineral was extracted was illegal in the first place. The NGT ban on mining and transport of coal could also be a blessing in disguise on two counts. First it made people realize that they need to prepare for the time when coal will finally be exhausted. Last but not the least it proves beyond doubt that the long arm of the law will catch-up with the wrong doers one day. Law will take its own course even if it sometimes delays in delivering justice.