SHILLONG: BJP national spokesperson Nalin Kohli on Saturday said his party would be committed to work towards a solution to the problems related to the coal mining ban in Meghalaya if voted to power next year.
Saying that the state government was not serious with the mining issue even after three years since the National Green Tribunal (NGT) banned the activity, Kohli said, “We as a party if voted to power in Meghalaya in 2018, make a commitment that we will work with stakeholders, keeping in mind the environment concerns, to come to a comprehensive solution.”
“We will work it out with the Union government to the satisfaction of the law in the country,” he said.
Addressing reporters here on Saturday, he said, “We are making the commitment and we will work towards that within a time span of six-eight months if voted to power in 2018. This is one of our agendas as we get closer to the election.”
He said the state government had failed in tackling the coal mining issue and that it was only pretending to find a solution.
Flaying the state government for not coming up with any mining plan, Kohli said, “The state mining plan is a still a chimera…. It is still a mirage. We have been waiting for a mining plan for over three years since the ban was imposed.”
“Instead of the mining plan (which the NGT has been asking for), the state government suddenly came up with Meghalaya Mineral Development Corporation Ltd (MMDC) to do the mining. This is just an excuse that the state government is trying to do something and shift the focus from a clear failure of handling the situation,” he said.
The BJP spokesperson assured the state government of help from the central government even as he said that it was the onus of the state government to work on the issue.
“Whatever support is needed, the central government will give within the legal framework.”
He further said the central government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi “does not discriminate between the Congress and non-Congress government.”
Kohli said coal mining was a serious issue as the livelihoods of thousands of people were directly linked to the economic activity.
“Our charge against the government is that for three years we have not seen any solution and we are worried that this pretention that a solution is being worked out on the eve of election is another excuse to somehow tell the people of Meghalaya and fool them that they are working. Whereas, in reality, they are not doing anything,” he said.
According to Kohli, the state government should have looked into the coal mining issue in totality — from the perspective of the environment, scientific mining and to take the stakeholders into consideration as well as the land holding system in the state, which is different from other parts of the country.
“The people of Meghalaya deserve to have good economic activity and environment but most importantly they expect the government to be more responsive to the needs of environment and economic activity,” he said.
