SHILLONG: A day after Supreme Court lifted the ban on coal mining in Meghalaya with certain riders, Opposition Leader Mukul Sangma has questioned as to why the State Government and the Union Government took U-turn in accepting MMDR Act before the Supreme Court.
The court made it clear that the mining should be done as per the MMDR Act 1957 and other related rules concerning safety of the workers.
“What will be the consequences keeping in mind the complexities and lengthy procedures that the mine owners- particularly the small mine owners have to go through,” Sangma said while fearing that the fallout will be that the middle men and benami businessmen will prosper at the cost of local people.
He said the government didn’t do it’s homework except to mislead the Supreme Court by claiming that more than 32 lakh metric tonnes of extracted coal were still lying in the mining areas in four districts which never existed and the intention was to facilitate illegal coal mining.
“Everyone interested to protect the state’s interests can find out what is happening in the coal mine areas and along the National Highways and don’t go by what I say,” he said.
MMDR Act exemption
He said the proposal submitted to the Union Government and subsequent resolution adopted in the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly in 2015 urging the Centre to ensure that the Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act 1973 and the MMDR Act 1957 shall not apply in Meghalaya, was agreed upon by the Ministry of Coal.
This was also the culmination of long drawn consultations at the level of the committee led by the Cabinet Secretary (committee constituted by the then PM, Manmohan Singh), based on his proposal as the chief minister of the state in 2014.
Sangma said the official view of ministry of coal was conveyed in 2015 and this stand of the ministry formed part of the official stand of union government which was also placed before the Supreme Court in the form of a government affidavit in January 2019.
The opposition leader, while welcoming the ruling of the court on coal mining in the state, however, stated that the judgment will ensure that the “priority and focus of the present government of allowing illegalities in respect of coal mines will be completely brought under the control.”
The former chief minister said the judgment has come due to the pro-active efforts of various organisations and individuals, who had filed petitions before the apex court to challenge the ruling of the NGT to ban coal mining in the state.
Coal miners hail verdict
The Meghalaya State Co-ordination Committee of Coal Owners, Miners, Exporters, Transporters & Dealers Forum, has hailed the judgment of the Supreme Court while reiterating their commitment to restoring and shielding the environmental issues and to continue the coal mining operations as permissible and to act in accordance with the law.