SHILLONG: The transportation of already extracted coal as allowed by the Supreme Court has come to an end from Friday.
The court had allowed transportation of coal from May 17 for 15 days.
An official said that the Directorate of Mineral Resources (DMR) is assessing the quantity of coal transported and how much is remaining.
Sources said though the Supreme Court allowed transportation of 75,050 metric tonnes of coal from Meghalaya for 15 days beginning May 17, the process is yet to be completed.
Earlier, the Apex Court had made it clear that while permitting transportation, the state authority should maintain the details of such transportation in different registers which will contain the information regarding quantity of coal, details of payments, persons who are transporting the coal, persons who are owners of the coal and details and date of verification certificates.
The court also asked the state to entrust the duty to ensure compliance of the order to responsible officers of the state government.
After the Justice (retd) Katakey Committee, constituted by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) last year, had sought information from the state government about the quantity of coal for which challans for transportation were issued between December 4, 2018 and January 15, 2019 and the quantity of coal already transported from the state, the committee was informed that challans for transportation of 1,69,149MT coal had been issued, pursuant to which 94,099MT coal had been transported out of the state between these dates, leaving 75,050MT of coal still to be transported, in respect of which the challans have already been issued.
Sources added that the coal merchants will again move the Supreme Court for the transportation of remaining coal.
