Transportation of extracted coal may get green signal
SHILLONG: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) is likely to allow transportation of the leftover coal during its two-day sitting here from Friday, but the decision to lift the ban on rat hole mining will be taken at a later stage once the criteria for safe mining is adopted.
It was on April 17 that NGT imposed a ban on rat-hole mining through an interim order.
An official source said on Thursday that NGT will allow transportation of coal which was earlier extracted provided that the State Government and those who are associated with coal mining follow certain conditions.
One of the conditions is that the mode of transportation of the extracted coal should take into account the safety of the transporters and the general public, besides taking care of environmental concerns.
There should be two check-points en route transportation of the extracted coal from the point of loading to the point of destination. In addition, there should be an exclusively devoted check point at the borders of Bangladesh and Assam. Both the government and the coal miners will have to maintain records while transporting coal according to the earlier order of NGT.
The transportation of extracted coal lying near the mines will be allowed only for a period of three months and NGT would consider extending the period or passing of such other directions at a subsequent stage.
As per the earlier direction of NGT, the authorities should ensure that the trucks carrying or transporting coal are not overloaded. The transportation should be done in a scientific way and the trucks should be fully covered to ensure that coal dust do not cause pollution.
Moreover, the State Government and all its authorities will have to fix weighing machines at all exit points from Meghalaya, particularly towards Assam and Bangladesh
Earlier, the NGT which had its hearing on June 9 had asked the Government to form a committee to assess the quantity of extracted coal. Following this, the committee submitted its report to NGT on the quantity of around 9 million metric tons of coal both in quarries and depots.
The committee was asked by NGT to carry out inspection of all the mining sites in the State to quantify the extracted coal and their locations.
The members of the committee include State Director of Mines, Member Secretary, Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board, Member Secretary, Assam State Pollution Control Board, senior Scientist of the Central Pollution Control Board, senior representative of Ministry of Environment and Forests, and Principal Secretary, Mining and Geology department.