By H H Mohrmen
If we continue to ignore facts and do not even try to learn from our mistakes we are bound to repeat them again and again and the future of the State will be nothing but bleak. It depends which way one looks at the NGT ban on rat hole mining. One could perceive it as a stumbling block on Meghalaya’s road to economic prosperity or that the ban has opened up our eyes to lessons beyond the immediate effects of what we perceived as negative impact of the ban on the state’s economy. In fact for people who are involved in advocating for environment protection in the state the NGT has done what environmental activist in the state have not been able to do in the last two decades. The NGT ban has helped educate not only the citizens but even those who are involved in coal mining have learned their lesson the hard way from the ban.
The one big lesson for the coal mine owners and even those politicians, policemen and bureaucrats who are directly and indirectly involved in the mining business is, that there are laws that need to be respected and obeyed. For so long, the perception among those involved in the business is that they can do whatever they like and can somehow skirt the law. They have the notion that even if they are caught violating laws, they can always buy their way through since money is not a problem. Of course we still saw reports in the newspapers that NGT order banning transport of coal from Meghalaya is being violated on a daily basis and there were also reports that mining is still going on in the mines located in far flung areas. But how can the police feign ignorance of this blatant violation of the ban on transportation of coal? The police chiefs in the mining areas should be taken to task because how can trucks load coal pass by without being seen by the law enforcement authority? It is also an open secret since any traveler on the highway can see that there is an illegal collection of money from the truckers at every police stations or outpost along the highway.
This column had recently brought this to light and had even identified the location where the police use to collect money from the trucks on the entire stretch of national highway 44 but unfortunately the looting by men in uniform continues. Now the challenge for the Home Minister is to secretly travel on NH 44 from Shillong to Umkiang and see with her own eyes what happens in the police station or the police outposts along the national highway. A thoroughly corrupt police force is what the HM is presiding over!
It is also true that there are those who shamelessly violate the ban and continue mining. There were reports of cases where coal mine owners made huge makeshift tents to cover the area where a crater was cut on land. The tent was made to hide the box cutting area so that no one can see what is going on inside the tent so, people continue to do mining. Using this trick the perpetrators of the crime know that not even satellite image will be able show the activity that is going on inside the tent. Now the question is what is the district administration and the police in this area doing? Did they even try to see that the ban is imposed in letter and spirit particularly in the mines in the far flung areas? Or are they colluding with the mine owners to facilitate mining in the area?
Now that the NGT had once again allowed transportation of extracted coal which is lying in the stockyard, the question is how can we assure that fresh coal is not mined and transported to the coal depot during the period? At least in Jaintia Hills, the coal that is currently lying in the various stock yards in the two districts is not coal that was extracted prior to April 2014. Much of the coal was extracted during the period when NGT allowed transport of coal from the state and miners used the period to replenish the exhausted stock. The pertinent question again is whether government can totally stop illegal mining in the mining areas?
There was hue and cry last year when the NGT used the term mafia in its order banning rat hole mining and transportation of coal from Meghalaya. Now that has been proven correct and every right minded citizen of the state would have seen that these people are in the habit of breaking the laws. And the illegal activity is thriving because law and order machinery in the areas chose to ignore those unlawful acts that are going on. If this is not a case of mafia activity, then what is it? This coal mafia, police and government nexus has gone on far too long and hopefully NGT can break this unholy nexus once and for all. Hopefully the ban can make people realize that no one is above the law no matter how holy or mighty one might be. Everybody is equal in the eyes of the law. Perhaps it will also help those who are in the habit of breaking the laws realize that they can no longer go around buying their way through and violating the law of the land with impunity.
For the coal mine owners and all those who are involved in the business, the NGT ban is a wakeup call to the fact that they need to prepare for the future. It teaches them that someday the springs will dry and they can’t take for granted and carry on and live the usual way with a false belief that the springs will last forever. The lesson from the NGT ban is that the people in the area need to prepare for the consequences that await them when coal is exhausted.
Keen observers of what is going on are bewildered to see reports in section of the press that the coal mine owners can’t afford to pay taxes in one go and had to request NGT to allow them to pay in installments. Even after the NGT had allowed them to pay the required taxes in installments it was reported that they had to depend on the businessmen from Beltola in Guwahati to help them pay the required tax. So where has all the money gone? It could well be that coal mine owners invest their meager resources buying new mining areas. Still the lesson from the NGT ban is that the coal mine owners need to have some hard cash in hand and cannot invest all their money under the ground without having liquid assets.
Finally the NGT ban on rat-hole mining has also woken-up the state Assembly from its slumber. The members of the House irrespective of their political affiliations have stopped pretending as if all is well with the environment in the state. Perhaps it was for the very first time in the history of the Meghalaya’s legislature that our MLAs have started debating about reclamation of rivers in the coal mine areas. Although I disagree with the Minister who informed the House that waters in rivers in the coal mine areas can be easily reclaimed, yet it is a good sign that gives us reason to be optimistic because the August House had admitted that the rivers in the coal mine areas were polluted from acid mine drainage. This writer for more than a decade had written on the issue and after visiting the Myntdu, the Lukha and the Kupli rivers called Jaintia hills the land of the dead rivers and what had happened so far has only vindicated that stand.
For both the people who are involved in coal business and for the government, the NGT ban helped us look beyond the horizon and see beyond the immediate impact of the ban. The NGT has helped us see the environmental consequences of the illegal rat-hole mining in the state. The ban has also impressed on the government of the need to come up with a Mining Policy for sustainable mining of minerals in Meghalaya.