NGT panel for compensation in all coal mishap cases

SHILLONG: The NGT panel on Thursday directed the state government to prepare compensation packages for all the victims who were killed or injured over the years while carrying out mining activities in the state.
As far as the latest instance of 15 miners is concerned, the state government told the NGT committee that compensation of Rs 1 lakh each will be provided to the families of the victims.
However, when queried about compensation for the Ksan mine victims earlier in the day, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma had told reporters that the issue can be addressed once there is confirmation of death.
The NGT committee headed by BP Katoki held its third meeting in the city attended by senior government officials of the concerned departments.
Katoki said over phone that during the meeting, he suggested the need to provide compensation to the families of those victims, who are yet to get justice for the last many years.
“Surprisingly, there was no official data with the government regarding the number of deaths and injuries caused during mining activities in Meghalaya”, Katoki said.
According to the NGT panel, the stand of the government was that there will be a flood of applications if there is a move to provide compensation.
“But I told them let there be several applications. What we need to do is to screen the applications”, Katoki said.
He was also surprised to know that there was no record on the part of the government regarding the death of miners in the past as media had reported several instances of deaths and injuries to miners.
Katoki also informed that 98 cases of illegal coal mining were detected since 2014 as per the government report.
“The government officials today admitted that there are cases of illegal mining activities”, he said.
During the last meeting, the government had apprised the NGT committee that over 2,900 trucks were seized for illegal transportation of coal and in this regard over 1,000 cases were registered.
The meeting chaired by Katoki also stressed the need to create awareness programmes for the mine owners and workers regarding safe and environment-friendly mining practice.