SHILLONG: The Movement for Indigenous People’s Rights and Livelihood-Meghalaya (MIPRL-M) has sought the intervention of the KHADC to appeal before the Centre to consider re-notifying the jurisdiction of the NGT to exclude the Tribunal’s jurisdiction over Meghalaya.
“The KHADC and the State Government should jointly appeal to the Centre to give time for enforcing proper mining and environment laws which are pertinent to the rights and tradition of the people,” MIRPL-M vice president Erwin K Sutnga stated in a representation submitted to KHADC CEM Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit on Friday.
He also called upon the KHADC to urge upon the JHADC and the GHADC to coordinate matters so as to impress upon the State Government to constitute a high-level committee on the matter since the blanket ban by the NGT on sand and coal mining has is an attack on the traditional system rendering the Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) and the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution irrelevant.
While referring to the June 9 order of the NGT, Sutnga said that the legal counsel of the KHADC had not managed to press forward the case of the KHADC. “It is necessary that the legal counsel be properly briefed and impressed upon to advocate our cause,” he added.
Sutnga also claimed that over 10 lakh aggrieved people of the State who either earn their livelihood from traditional mining of coal and sand have been affected by the NGT order.
“The situation is volatile with majority of the people feeling frustrated, angry and ready to explode if the ban is allowed to continue without immediate and aggressive intervention on the part of the ADCs and Government. The human tragedy has already unfolded with one person committing suicide in Jaintia Hills,” Sutnga, further, claimed.
Sit-in protest by HANM
The Hynniewtrep Achik National Movement (HANM) on Friday staged a sit-in demonstration near Raj Bhavan to protest against the NGT ban on coal mining in the State.
The HANM had initially planned to hold a sit-in protest near the High Court of Meghalaya. However, with the promulgation of CrPC 144, the district administration did not give them permission to hold the protest near the High Court.
Around 30 central executive committee (CEC) members of the HANM took part in the sit-in protest.
“We strongly oppose this ban imposed by the Tribunal which has affected a large number of people who are earning their livelihood by way of coal mining,” HANM president Lamphrang Kharbani told reporters.
Kharbani, however, made it clear that their protest against the mining ban did not necessarily mean that they were not concerned about the environment.
He also said that the State Government must now come up with measures to preserve and protect the environment which it had failed to do for decades.