SHILLONG: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma was urged to not allow the Central Mine Planning and Development Institute (CMPDI), a subsidiary of Coal India Limited, to dictate terms on the mining activity in Meghalaya.
Madal Sumer from Jowai, West Jaintia Hills, who has been pursuing the coal mine case, said he received information from reliable sources that the state government has decided to entrust CMPDI, which is a subsidiary unit of Coal India Limited, to regulate the coal mining in Meghalaya once the ban is lifted.
The services of CMPDI which the state government mulls to utilise are regarding the preparation of coal mining plan and periodical scanning of mining activities in the state.
As per the information gathered, the mining plan of the state will be prepared by the CMPDI.
“In the mining plan, I am made to understand that within the mining area of (0.5 X 0.5) km2 only three box tunnels will be allowed to be made to access the coal seams. In most of the cases, especially in Jaintia Hills, only few people have got such a big mining area. Most of the coal miners own small plots of land which are less than 1 hectare,” he said in the letter addressed to the chief minister.
He pointed out that since land belongs to the native residents, the ownership of land will have to be taken into account.
Sumer said that underground coal mining has the least impact on environment and added that the government should focus only on framing guidelines for scientific mining” which will be complied with by all coal miners while preparing the mining plan. According to him, mining plan should be mine specific and should be prepared by individual miners which will be as per his mining land or areas.
“There cannot be a single and uniform mining plan for all mines. The size of mines varies as some people own big area, while some own small portion and some others have plain and steep areas, but in these areas, there are coal seams,” he said.
He asserted the standard mining plan for all which is prepared by outsiders have no idea about the topography of Meghalaya and it will do more harm than good to local coal miners and that will certainly lead to marginalisation and elimination of small time coal miners.
He said the government should be more concerned with the individual mining plans and the guidelines rather than preparing the mining plan by itself as this will open a corridor of favouritism while screening and scrutinising the applications.
Sumer said there are several top national institutes in Shillong which are more conversant with the topography and nature of Meghalaya and the government can consult with them for framing of guidelines for making coal mining plans in the state.
He further said government should not promote or encourage monopoly in coal mining which will favour only big miners as it will lead to elimination of small and marginal miners.
“Mines belong to the people and it should remain so till the end of time. Moreover, people of Meghalaya (in Garo Hills in particular) have already rejected Coal India Ltd way back during the early 1990s. This time the government should not allow it to control the coal mining in Meghalaya,” he said.