By H H Mohrmen
It is now over six months year since the National Green Tribunal had intervened and temporarily stopped illegal and unscientific mining and transportation of coal from Meghalaya. Six months after the ban perhaps it is only fair to analyse the impact of the ban. Six months ago when the order was first made public the coal lobby in the state made a hue and cry; prophets of doom prophesized that doomsday is looming large across the horizon especially in the coal mine areas. It was predicted that thousands of people engaged in the business would die of starvation and chaos would reign and that criminal activities in the coal mine areas would increase by leaps and bounds.
The prediction that thousands of people would die of starvation has been proven wrong. So far no information of starvation deaths anywhere in the State have been heard or reported by the media till date. No doubt the ban has affected a large section of the people in the coal mine areas but the scale is not as was being portrayed by the coal lobby and the impact is not something that cannot be resolved or dealt with. Again this has happened even without any intervention from the state government to create sustainable livelihoods for the people affected by the ban on mining and transportation of coal.
Coal mines owners also raised a hue and cry about schools and churches which were closed after the NGT ban. But did the coal mine owners have any concern about these schools before the ban? If the coal mines owners really cared about these schools then why were they not included in the SSA scheme of the district? Did the coal mine owners ever help the management of these schools to approach the Education Department? Is it not true that because these schools only cater to the needs of the children of migrant labourers, particularly Nepalese, nobody really cared about these schools until the NGT ban. And when the ban came into effect the coal lobby used the schools as an excuse to prove that NGT ban had had a negative impact on the people.
The story of a family that sold one of its babies to enable them to pay for a trip back home also needs to be examined in detail. Where is the baby now? Is the baby in the custody of the Department of Child Welfare or Child line? What about the parents? Have they been arrested? Is it not a crime to sell one’s kid? What happened to the people who bought the baby? Isn’t buying human beings an illegal act? Even if the story is true, why does one have to sell one’s kids? Why didn’t the coal mine owners come to the rescue of the family and provide them with the much needed money to enable them to travel back home? Is it not true that coal mine owners who now claim to be very much concerned about the welfare of the baby have always treated their workers inhumanly? Isn’t it also true that the miners were paid peanuts so much so that they don’t even have the capacity to save even for a return trip back home? These are some pertinent questions on the issue. Do we have the answer?
When the ban for transportation of coal from Meghalaya was lifted, the NGT has been extremely considerate to the coal mine owners and allowed them to ship the extracted coal after paying taxes due to the government. The NGT had made it clear that taxes should be paid as per assessment by the Government agencies or as declared by coal owners – whichever is higher. And when the coal mine owners expressed their inability to pay taxes in one go and approached the NGT, it has generously allowed them to pay taxes in three installments. What we don’t realize is that the Tribunal has the power to seize all the extracted coal because the same was mined illegally and in the process violated all Forest Acts and Mining laws. The NGT could have auctioned the coal and deposited the revenue collected from selling the mineral in the government’s treasury. Yet the NGT is extremely considerate and allowed coal mine owners to transport extracted coal after giving due consideration to their demands.
But in spite of all these consideration it is an open secret that there is illegal supply of coal from Meghalaya. After the ban on transportation of coal was lifted, coal was still transported illegally without paying taxes. It is reported in the media that police did took into custody trucks which illegally transported coal, but what has happened to the arrested drivers and truck owners? What happened to coal and trucks seized by the police? Where they are now? How much revenue has been collected from trucks which try to transport coal without paying royalty to the government? And the most important question is how many trucks and how much coal has been transported illegally to Assam without paying taxes?
The illegal transport of coal can also cause huge loss of revenue to the government so it will be interesting to know how much revenue was collected by the DMR post the NGT ban? Did the revenue collection match with the quantity of coal in the stockyards as declared by the coal mine owners or as assessed by the Committee? If the revenue collected does not tally with the quantity of coal declared by the owners or assessed by the committee what will be the consequences? Can coal all of a sudden disappear from the stockyard? Certainly coal cannot vanish into the thin air just like that. So, the pertinent question is – Will the NGT look the other way and allow this violation of its order go unpunished? Will it not take cognizance and will it allow this daylight robbery of the state exchequer to happen?
If the committee set up by NGT wants to ascertain the movement of coal trucks from the coal mine areas information is available in plenty. Information of movement of coal trucks particularly from Jaintia Hills can be collected from the toll plazas on the Shillong bypass and the weighbridges at seventh mile in West Jaintia Hills and in Ri Bhoi district. The committee or the NGT can compare the information to check if numbers of coal trucks moving from the state tally with revenue collected. Perhaps the police and the DMR also need to be more stringent in their efforts to check this blatant violation of NGT ban in the state.
It is also an open secret that after the unfortunate firing incident the district administration of East Jaintia Hills District is on the back foot. There were reports of coal being transported outside the state to Assam on the National Highway 44 through Malidor. Questions can also be asked about the Cement companies in East Jaintia Hills District. How come these cement companies still operate even after the NGT had banned transporting of coal in the state for more than six months now? Where did the coal come from? How big is the Cement companies’ stockyard that it can hold coal to last for more than six months? The same question can be asked about the paper mill in Panchgram; where has the coal come from? How come all these industries runs without any hitch, when the ban has been in operation for over six months and they all depend on coal from Meghalaya! The Meghalaya Cherra Cements Limited has stopped production many months ago due to non availability of coal in the area, but the cement companies in East Jaintia hills continue operations despite the prolonged ban. Some of the cement plants in the Narpuh area even have their own coal-based captive power plant and the same continues to function despite the fact that transportation of coal in the state was banned for more than 6 months now. There is something shady here that needs to be brought to light.
It is obvious that people in the coal business, particularly those involved in transportation of coal continue to fiddle with the law and carry on supplying coal despite the ban or without paying royalty due to the state. Otherwise we would not see regular press report of trucks being apprehended by the police for violating the NGT ban. The state needs to get its act together and make people understand that they cannot play with the law if they want the NGT to consider their plight.