SHILLONG: The Leader of the Opposition, Mukul Sangma, on Tuesday accused the NPP-led MDA government of lying to the people over the coal mining issue.
Speaking to media persons here on Thursday, Mukul said that the BJP and NPP had lied to get votes and even after forming the government, they were lying.
“I will have to find a university which can provide honorary degree in master of lies to them,” Sangma said while adding that the chief minister has not done his homework on coal mining and that he has not studied the file in spite of being in power for almost a year.
Stating that the chief minister is ignorant of what has transpired so far, he added that there are laws to regulate mining provided it takes care of the environment and health and safety of the miners.
“If we want to continue coal mining, we must regulate the activities as per law,” he said.
Mukul said the Centre had told the state government in the 70s that it had no intention to ban coal mining based on traditional and customary laws provided it conformed to laws in respect of environment and health and safety of the miners.
Lamenting that there was no follow-up, he said in 2010, the government had initiated the process of framing the mineral development and regulation policy, 2012, but then there was resistance to it.
The former chief minister recalled that the state government later asked the Centre to exempt Meghalaya from the Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act and the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation and) Act to facilitate regulated coal mining in the state. According to Mukul, the former Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, had even formed a committee headed by the cabinet secretary and it gave a view in favour of the state government’s proposal.
He, however, added that the issue needed to be followed up to enable the President to issue a notification to exempt Meghalaya from the two Acts. He said the responsibility lay with the Ministry of Home Affairs, but they came up with excuses.
He said that the state government had taken up the matter with the Centre besides making a fresh proposal. As per the proposal, the state’s nodal agency, Meghalaya Mineral Development Corporation Ltd (MMDC), could facilitate mining as there is a provision that the Union government can give mining lease to any company owned by the state government. But, the then Opposition, including BJP and NPP, played politics and alleged that the government was trying to take away their mines.
