Chief Minister Conrad Sangma’s stout denial on the reality of illegal coal mining activities that are still carrying on in Meghalaya, are bizarre to say the least. His colleague, Kyrmen Shylla echoed the same views days ago. It appears that the MDA Government wants to sit out this allegation for as long as it can, until some external agency brings solid evidence that coal is indeed mined illegally in Meghalaya and regularly transported outside the state. However, when the allegations are levelled by the Opposition Congress then it is in bad taste because illegal mining and transportation of coal did not resume in 2018. It was carrying on since April 2014 when the Congress was in power and trucks were carrying both the NGT permitted coal which had been mined earlier and also freshly mined coal. So for the pot to call the kettle black is a completely uncalled for. It is more of a charade by a Party that is waiting in the wings to wrest power at any opportune moment. It is incomprehensible as to why politicians cannot work together on common issues of public interest and that they should all the time be barking at each other like sworn enemies. Isn’t public interest uppermost in their minds?
The Congress is least qualified to rave and rant at this nine month old Government because the first criminal act of killing a police constable who was checking illegal transportation of coal in Ri Bhoi district happened during its tenure. That the killers of Constable PJ Marbaniang who was murdered after he resisted the release of as many as 32 seized trucks which had violated NGT ban on transportation of coal, have not been apprehended leaves so many unanswered questions about the deep nexus between the police, politicians and the coal mafia. Marbaniang died of gunshots in his quarters. The post crime scenario seems well orchestrated to make it appear that he died of suicide even while all evidence was cleaned up. It is unfortunate that such cases fall off the media radar and are quietly forgotten. Actually the police should be grilled on the slow progress of the case. RTI activist Poipynhun Majaw too seems to have died in vain since his killers are still at large.
Politicians on both sides of the divide therefore must stop pointing fingers at each other and behave like mature public representative. The public is not fooled by this blame game. All politicians are prone to serving the interests of the moneyed class and coal certainly pays for votes.