SHILLONG: The Movement for the Indigenous People’s Rights and Livelihood- Meghalaya (MIPRL) has urged the State Government to remove Additional Chief Secretary K.S. Kropha from the NGT Committee as well as from the Mining and Geology Department with immediate effect.
“We are demanding the removal of the Additional Chief Secretary since he has been implicated in the Coal Scam in Delhi. Not only this, he was arrested and granted bail in the said scam,” MIPRL spokesperson Erwin K Sutnga said in a statement issued here on Tuesday.
Sutnga said that the State Government should replace Kropha with someone who knows and understands the need of the tribal people of Meghalaya.
He also suspected manipulation in the reports sent to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) since he (Kropha) was heading the Government Committee which has been implicated in the coal scam.
“His work on the NGT Committee must also come under scrutiny because the reports sent to the NGT also have to be viewed as fruits of the same poisonous tree, namely, manipulation of the acts/ rules to serve certain business interests which in this case also includes the attempt to erode tribal rights over land which is an outright attack on tribal traditions so that it serves the vested business interest of a select few in Meghalaya,” Sutnga said.
He said that they had been waiting for the reaction of the State Government on the alarming development in Kropha’s case.
“So far no statement has been forthcoming from the Government. We have ascertained that the implementation of Acts like the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act 1957 will destroy the chances of medium, small and marginal mine operators to make a livelihood. The attempt to use collection of royalty as a tool of oppression clearly shows the contention of attack and erosion of tribal rights by the said NGT Committee,” Sutnga said.
He said that at the same time the NGT should be apprised and a re- evaluation and total re-submission of the NGT guidelines should be made keeping in mind the interest and capacity of the tribal people and the mandate of Para 12 A Sub Para (b) of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution of India.
“Another important question to be asked is why the NGT Committee under Kropha never placed before the NGT our unique system of coal deposits and the unique mining system that this has resulted in, which will make the NGT understand the unique position of mining in Meghalaya,” the MIPRL spokesperson said.