On Friday the Supreme Court of India said it wanted a briefing on the rescue operations in the Ksan mine, East Jaintia Hills on Monday. The Court does not seem satisfied at the progress of the rescue operation and rightly so since it is now the 23rd day since the mining accident on December 13 where 15 miners are trapped i side a flooded mine. That the rescue operation is poorly managed requires no further evidence. The rescue mission is a case of delayed reaction from the state and central government. And whether any lessons are learnt from this incident also remains a question mark.
On the same day the National Green Tribunal (NGT) too levied an environmental cost of Rs 100 crore from the state government for violating its orders passed in April 2014 which banned rat hole mining. The NGT says that this money will be realised from mine owners and errant officials. The money would be in the custody of the Central Pollution Control Board and will be used to restore the environment, such as filling up and closing the abandoned mines. The order is salutary, except that like all orders of the NGT, compliance remains a problem. The NGT banned coal mining in April 2014. It then appointed a Committee to assess the quantum of coal already extracted and allowed that coal to be transported. But up until 2018, the coal seems to have magically multiplied itself and its presence as ubiquitous as the landscape. The reason is simple. Coal was being mined despite the ban and the coal mine owners repeatedly petitioned the NGT and later the Supreme Court asking for transportation of coal extracted before the ban. There have been 10 such lifts on the ban. The problem with NGT is that it does not have the wherewithal to enforce the ban. To rely on the State Government to do so is an exercise in futility since those in Government are complicit in facilitating the illegal mining and transportation of coal. This was proven after the mine tragedy of December 13, 2018.
The NGT hopes that its order would be complied with but what happens if the illegality is repeated as it was post April 2014. Does the NGT have punitive powers? If it had, then all those who have violated the mining ban and also those who have facilitated it would also have been held accountable after the December 13 mining disaster. The NGT will have to do better than just issue orders. Compliance has to be strictly enforced and the Rs 100 crore has to be recovered within a definite timeline.