EJH: Mine owners unhappy over detained coal trucks
JOWAI: If one travels around the mineral rich East Jaintia Hills district of Meghalaya, fresh coal dumped all around is visible. The mining activities can be noticed even from the National Highway.
The extraction of coal, which was banned by the NGT, is still going on in parts of East Jaintia Hills.
Journalists from Jaintia Hills witnessed this not only on Wednesday, but also many days ago.
The NGT order on transportation of the already extracted coal has given an opportunity for all the mine owners to extract coal illegally in order to fill up the gap and the differences between the declared and the assessed quantity of coal.
Some of the mine owners had declared higher quantity of coal, while the NGT officials also assessed more quantity of coal.
Hence,there is difference between the declared, the assessed and the accurate quantity of extracted coal still lying in the road side either along the Highway or along the village roads in East Jaintia Hills.
Earlier, during the NGT hearing in December last year , it was observed that the miners had said that the amount of declared coal was around 1,23,45,599 tonnes, while NGT found that there was 36,45,599 tonnes of coal, which is the difference between the declared coal and the assessed coal.
Police are trying hard to check these illegal activities, but due to shortage of man power, they could not monitor the illegal activities round the clock.
“When I am prohibited from mining, how can I mine, but the law should be equal to all. Though I have several coal mines, they (police officers) don’t allow me to mine even one, whereas some individuals who are having only one mine were allowed to mine. Why there is such a change of rule?, a mine owner, who does not want to be named said.
Sources said that if the police in East Jaintia Hills had enough man power to check such illegal activities, they will be able to detect unloading of coal brought from mining sites, and if they visit mining areas, they will find mining activities still going on.
Surprise strike
The East Jaintia Coal Suppliers’ Association (JHCMA) has allegedly illegally detained as many as thirteen coal laden trucks transporting coal to cement plants in East Jaintia Hills District. Sources informed that JHCMA has called for a strike to stop supplying coal to cement plants unless rate of coal per metric ton is hiked. However, the concerned association has informed such decision without any prior announcements.
“Without any information to us and their fellow suppliers and to the coal mines owners, they had just called a strike”, said one of the suppliers from West Jaintia Hills. “It seems that they are scared of the National Green Tribunal to make any such announcement. This is a violation of the NGT Court’s order which had allowed the transportation of coal till May 15”, he added.