SHILLONG: The Meghalaya Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Mukul Sangma said the existence of illegal coal mining and the ramification of such exercise was due to greed of people in power.
The CLP on Sunday had an emergency meeting to discuss the prevailing situation in the state pertaining to coal mining and the trapped miners in Ksan, East Jaintia Hills.
He said, “Greedy people are those people who are misusing government machineries. This is an outcome of the extreme greed of the people in power. That is why we are saddened by this development.”
With the move of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) slapping a penalty of Rs 100 crore which is only an interim penalty, he said the NGT was aware of the misuse of government machineries and hence the penalty.
“So what is going to come, we will have to just presume and assume and anticipate and the price that the state is going to pay because of their greed is not acceptable,” he said.
With the tragic development relating to coal mining, he said the situation was not acceptable to the people as the state could be known for such unpleasant things happening on the ground.
According to Sangma, the illegal coal mining and subsequent trapping of the coal labourers has drawn a negative attention from the nation and the global community asserting that the situation has shamed the state and the nation.
He added the related incident of assault on Agnes Kharshiing and Amita Sangma had shamed the state and the nation.
Sangma also trained his guns at bureaucrats who he said were silent spectators and criticized them for being scared of their political bosses.
“They are succumbing to their political bosses and they will pay a price for that because their job is to protect the interest of the people,” he said.
He also pointed to Section 3 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 which he bluntly said, “all will apply in due course of time.”
Probably a message Sangma wants to give to the “greedy people” is, “Do not misuse government machinery because you won’t be able to protect the officers later, officers will all become victim.”
He went on to say that the state government had been firing from the shoulders of the officers to allow illegalities to happen.
“I am saying this because everyone in the state knows what is happening on ground zero. What is happening in those areas where illegality is happening and why it is happening?” Sangma said.
Speaking about remarks on politicizing the coal mining issue, he said, “Politicians are there to protect the interest of the people of the state and nation. As far as this development is concern, it is completely against the interest of the state and the people.”
Referring to the one day special session, the Opposition has made it abundantly clear and tried to draw the attention of the government on what is happening across the state.
He spoke about coming across a documentary about school children attending evening school, an initiative started from 2013-14, in which children stopped attending classes when illegal mining started.
“In course of the submission made by one of the teachers in the documentary says that now the children have stopped coming because coal mining have started. How has coal mining start?” Sangma said.
Stating that the BJP and NPP promised to open coal mining in five months, he said the people of remote areas thought that this might be the result that they might have opened up coal mining.
“They have had a rhetoric that they will open up coal mining within six months, they meant to open up illegal coal mining. That is what can be interpreted from what we see now,” he said.
Speaking about the surreptitious manner in which coal mining is being carried out, Sangma said every man in coal mining area would tell stories and there was nothing to hide.