It’s only a few months short of five years since the National Green Tribunal (NGT) banned the mining of coal in April 2014. The NGT had constituted a Committee to assess the quantum of extracted coal and permitted that coal to be transported. Shockingly, the Government counsel stated in the Supreme Court on Monday that the quantum of extracted coal is 1,76,000 MT. Clearly the NGT has been amiss in its understanding of the coal conundrum here and whoever is briefing the Tribunal is doing great disservice to the state, its environment and its people.
When the NGT first got into the process of assessing the quantum of extracted coal, the task was left to two senior Government officials. They in turn activated the Deputy Commissioners to do the work by taking stock of the entire coal mines in Jaintia Hills. The assessment of extracted coal quantity was done in Metric Tonnes (MT) adopting a volumetric method – volume of stock in cubic metres x 0.88 being the standard conversion rate for Meghalaya coal (dry) as notified in Rule 10 (2) of the Meghalaya Mineral and Cess Rules, 1989. The total quantity declared by the owners initially was 120,94,634 MT. The fresh stock found on inspection was 15, 38, 214 MT. Hence the total coal declared was 136, 37,707 MT. Ironically, the assessment made by the Committee in September 2014 found the quantum to be only 65,81,147 MT. This quantum should have been transported in a single year.
There are a total of over 6000 coal mine owners in Meghalaya with the largest number of 3823 being in East Jaintia Hills while East and West Garo hills have the least with just 46 and 34 respectively. The official report given by the NGT appointed Committee says that large number of mine owners have made false declarations without having any coal stock. Some have grossly over-declared. The Committee had also laid out clear guidance on how royalty for the extracted coal is to be paid and also specified how the coal is to be transported without exceeding the Supreme Court order of 9MT per truck. Each truck carrying this extracted coal had to have a sticker in the front windshield stating, “ Coal Transported Under NGT Order.” Of course none of this was adhered to and there was no strict supervision on the illegal transportation. Constable Marbaniang in Ri Bhoi district paid with his life for sticking his neck out. His killers are still at large. So the real story of illegal mining and transportation of coal is a web of deceit, collusion and crime.