By H H Mohrmen
The mayhem at the government weighbridge in Umling and the attack on government officials and public property is just another case of people involved in coal business taking the law in their own hands. Like our Rangbah Shnong, people who are involved in coal business think they are law in themselves and engage in many illegal acts. The bedlam at Umling is just the tip of the iceberg.
The truth is that the truckers who were involved in the mayhem were drivers and helpers of overloaded trucks. These trucks carry in excess of the nine tons capacity stipulated by the Hon’ble Supreme Court. Government officials tried to stop these overloaded trucks from transporting coal to Beltola and the day before the mayhem all these trucks were stranded on the Shillong bypass. They waited for the evening to come to forcibly travel to Guwahati. Therefore those people who were involved in the pandemonium were people with criminal intention to violate the law of the land. The incident has only brought to light the attitude of those involve in coal business and the extent that these people are willing to go to, to meet their selfish ends.
The other story which happened almost at the same time as the burning of the weighbridge at Umling and the attack on the government officials is the murder of a policeman. Here too the needle of suspicion for the murder of a young police officer points towards the possibility that some in the coal business are involved in the gruesome act. It was only when the young wife of the deceased Sub Inspector came out of her mourning and met the press that more frightening information about the incident came to light. Her statement has now confirmed that the death of the young police officer is in some way or the other also connected to the coal business. And if the allegation of the officer’s wife is true, then people need to know who the people are in the echelons of power who had forced him to allow the trucks to transport coal illegally from the state.
Given the opportunity, truckers and the coal mine owners are also fond of taking advantage of loop holes in the law and corrupt government officials for their benefit. It was also reported that the policeman was murdered because he stopped trucks without proper document from transporting coal to Guwahati. It is well known that most of the trucks tried to ply on the road without valid documents from Sale tax and the Directorate of Mineral Resources to avoid paying tax. And all along and throughout the journey they are able to pass through any check points or police station/outpost because police and government officials allow them to pass without valid documents after receiving money. So when the young officer stopped the trucks, he becomes a black sheep in the herd and his higher-ups tried to persuade him to act in line with his fellow policemen throughout the highway.
Some trucks which transport coal not only ply on the highway without valid document to transport coal, but they don’t have valid document as per the Road Transport Act to ply on the road? Many trucks engaging in transportation of coal on this highway also use the white registration plates. As far as one knows, white registration plates are allotted to private vehicles only. Vehicles involved in commercial activities are issued with yellow registration plates by the departments. Now the transport department need to clarify to the public how come trucks with white registration plates could engage in commercial activities of supplying mineral to another state?
People who are involved in coal business are not averse to attacking people. Last year even media persons who were doing their duty were attacked by the leaders of the truckers and his goons near the headquarters of West Jaintia hills district. Not only were the media persons attacked but their cameras were also damaged by the thugs. And prior to that during the agitation called by the conglomerate of coal mine owners a person no less than the rank of the Superintendent of Police of East Jaintia hills District was attacked and a vehicle of a magistrate was damaged by the people who supported the agitation. The next day a mob marched to the Lad Rymbai police station demanding the release of the person the police arrested for his alleged role in the attack of the government officials. And then the unfortunate incident happened when people lost their lives in the firing that followed.
It is also apparent now that coal miners, who are in the habit of violating the law have started mining when the NGT has only allowed transport of extracted coal from the state while still upholding the ban on rat-hole mining.
It seems people have a penchant for violating the laws but the business of violating laws is also as old as the coal business itself. The illegal activities have been going far too long now but this cannot happen without the support of those who are supposed to be the keepers of the law. The police in both the districts of Jaintia hills know very well that the public are not so dumb as not to see what is going on throughout the highway. If one travels from Khliehriat to Shillong, the business of collecting money by the police starts from Khliehriat near the police station itself, then at Lad Rymbai and after Lad Rymbai, the jurisdiction of West Jaintia hills begins. In West Jaintia hills the collection starts from Phramer and then at the junction near Myntdu Bridge but the most blatant collection is at the Ummulong outpost. In the past policemen in uniform used to stop trucks passing through the outpost and collect money from the same, but now people in civil dress are used to collect money from the truckers.
It is no longer a secret as everybody who travels on this national highway has seen this illegal collection going on near and around the police station or the police outpost. In Pnar they even have an adage to describe such unashamed violation of the law by the keepers of the law they say: (Dea sarom da kiwa peit ia kiwa ieit), the person who defecate in the open is not ashamed, rather it is the passerby who sees the act who is ashamed. The same thing happens on the Khliehriat-Malidor portion of the highway, there is illegal collection of money at Myndihati, Lumchnong and Umkiang. The moot question is how can such illegal activities go on unchecked? Do the higher ups in the police or in the home department not know about this? If not how come they don’t know when the collection is done openly at all these police stations and police outposts? If the collection is being done with the knowledge of the higher-ups in the department then the question is who benefits from the illegal collection of taxes?
This column has on several occasions exposed the illegal transaction that is going on via Tamabil – Dawki where over loaded trucks export coal and limestone. So what happens to the excess coal or limestone? How do the Bangladeshi importers pay the cost of excess mineral to the Indian exporters? Is it not true that the amount for excess coal or limestone exported is paid via hawala? Apart from the fact that trucks without proper registration plates are used in the export business, in Dawki, dumper trucks with white and even without registration plates are also involved in exporting limestone to Bangladesh. But can dumper trucks be engaged in commercial activities without national/state permit and that too in exporting minerals across the border?
There are far too many blatant violations of laws in the coal and limestone business so why are government officials looking the other way? The Home Department, the Transport Department, the Directorate of Mineral Resources and other departments related to mining need to pull up their socks and get their act together for the benefit of the state. If incidents like the attack in Umling and the murder of PJ Marbaniang does not wake us up, then what will wake us up from our slumber?