Meghalaya has been pulled up yet again by the apex court for not utilising the environment fund amounting to over Rs 420 crore from coal transportation. Apparently the State Government is waiting for the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to frame guidelines on how the funds are to be deployed. As far as the funds lying at the disposal of the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) created at the behest of the Supreme Court after its ruling on the Lafarge project in Nongtrai, East Khasi Hills is concerned, it is worth mentioning that several initiatives have been taken for compulsory afforestation, for creating sacred groves and orchards, apart from infrastructure creation such as school buildings, water conservation and distribution, health centres etc., as demanded by the villages affected by the limestone mining activities. However, an area of concern is that propensity to use the environmental fund which is essentially meant to address climate change adaptation and mitigation measures, for projects that are otherwise within the ambit of the state budgetary plan. Why, for instance should money be spent on road construction which is essentially the remit of the State Public Works Department (PWD) and why is the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) shirking from its basic responsibility of providing potable water to people in the last village even after 46 years of statehood?
It is patently unfair to meet budgetary shortfalls of different departments through the environmental funds. The coal mining areas of the state face a bleak future after the rivers have turned toxic, the agricultural lands gone barren and forests decimated. The CAMPA funds do not appear to have been judiciously used in Meghalaya. It is also a fact that those who bear the brunt of mining activities have very little or no say in how the funds are used, despite the fact that their areas are critically polluted.
It is important to create citizens’ bodies to monitor how the “Green Fund” is spent and to ensure that it does not become trapped in politics. MLAs and potential candidates should not be allowed to influence how the Environmental Funds are used. What bears mention is that Meghalaya has also created a District Mineral Foundation, a non-profit trust run by Government for developing the mining affected areas. Miners have to pay up to 30% of royalty on minerals to this Fund set up after India’s Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act came into force in 2015. The question is how is this fund being used up to this point?