Coal body submits views on mining plan, meets Coal Min

SHILLONG: The State Co-ordination Committee of Coal Owners, Miners and Dealers Forum (SCCCOMDF) on Thursday submitted views and opinions as stakeholders for the draft mining guidelines to the Ministry of Coal and the Ministry of Forest and Environment in Delhi.
The Forum members also met Union Minister of Coal, Piyush Goyal to apprise him of the pending issue.
It submitted the proposals in view of the direction passed by the National Green Tribunal on July 21 after a petition was filed by the coal miners’ body.
The Tribunal conceded the prayer of coal miners giving them the liberty to submit such proposal in order to ascertain the views of the stakeholders.
The SCCCOMDF delegation was led by both members of the Parliament from Meghalaya, Vincent H. Pala and Conrad M. Sangma.
During the hearing on July 21, the NGT had pulled up the Ministry of Environment and Forest, for the delay in preparing the mining plan for Meghalaya after the ministry outsourced the matter to experts.
NGT had also asked the Ministry of Environment and Forest, the Ministry of Coal and the Meghalaya government to hold a meeting to finalise the mining plan and submit a report at the earliest.