SHILLONG: The state government has released Rs 1.2 crore for the restoration of affected areas due to coal mining.
The money will be used to rope in various central and state agencies to ensure protection of environment in coal mining areas.
The NGT-appointed judicial panel headed by retired Gauhati High Court judge BP Katoki chaired a meeting on Monday to discuss environment restoration in the mining areas of Meghalaya.
Katoki said besides various agencies working toward the green cause, the Forest Department has submitted a report proposing afforestation of coal mining areas.
The North East Space Application Centre has also been entrusted to complete satellite mapping of the mining areas at the earliest.
Sealing of the abandoned mines is another suggestion of the judicial panel.
Ten claims till date
The state government has received only 10 claims for compensation till date from the families of the miners who were either killed or injured due to the collapse of mine or related accidents.
The state government had last month issued a notice seeking claims from affected persons.
According to Katoki, the state government should issue advertisement in Assam newspapers so that the affected miners or their families from the neighbouring state can make claims for compensation.
The state already has a corpus of over Rs 400 crore for environment protection and the NGT-appointed committee wanted the families of the workers who were killed or injured while carrying out mining to come forward and avail the compensation.
Status of mining
Katoki said the government apprised the panel that there are no more illegal coal mining activities.
However, Katoki said the seizure of coal trucks in several parts of Meghalaya indicates that there is illegal transportation of coal.
The state government also briefed the NGT panel about the status of the rescue operations in Ksan, East Jaintia Hills.
The Indian Navy continued with its periodic maintenance and repair of machines and the ROV is expected to start work at the earliest.
CIL ran just one pump on Monday for 18 hours since Sunday and discharged 24,30,000 liters of water. The process of rectification of the other pump is going on. Pumping will resume soon after the repair work.
The Kirloskar pumped for 16 hours since Sunday and the total water discharged is 14,40,000 liters.
The KSB pumped out 63,36,000 liters in the last two days.
The NGT had on August 31 appointed the judicial panel to deal with the issues related to protection of environment and safety of miners.
The panel had several rounds of meeting with the state government officials regarding the matter and carried out a field visit to coal mines in East Jaintia Hills.
