State cannot allow rat-hole mining in future
SHILLONG: Hurdles are many before the state government finally gets the nod from the Centre to start mechanised mining in Meghalaya.
An official with Mining and Geology department said MMDR Act said that the mine owners will have to follow many guidelines before actually starting mining activities.
The department has already forwarded the July 3 order of the Supreme Court regarding resumption of coal mining to the Law department for examination.
The official said with the court order, the government cannot allow rat-hole coal mining which has been declared illegal since central mining laws are not followed.
Sources said since there are many mine owners having small coal deposits, they will have to come together under a society to get mining plans cleared as otherwise many of them have to individually submit mining plans.
Besides, the small and marginalised mine owners will not be able to bear the cost of preparing mining plans.
The mining plan will be mine specific though the state government is planning to engage central agencies to prepare broad parameters of the mining plan.
Mining area
An official source said the coal mining area should be more than 100 hectares to apply for mining operations.
Besides, the mine owners have to provide mining lease to mine operators who will carry out mechanised mining.
According to the Supreme Court order, the state government cannot issue mining lease as only the mine owners can do it.
However, the mine operators have to follow the central mining laws.
Before any mining plan is prepared, exploratory mining will have to be carried out.
With the Supreme Court order, the mine owners will have to engage professional miners for extraction of coal and not ordinary workers as was followed during rat-hole mining.
Since the mining will involve use of machines in addition to manpower, this will also bring additional financial burden on the mine owners.
Various clearances
The major hurdle is that the mine owners through the state government will have to get forest and environment clearances from the Centre before carrying out mining activities. Coal Mines Act also needs to be followed as this pertains to the safety of the miners working in the mines.
If the mining is carried out in forest land, forest clearance is necessary and compensatory afforestation will have to be carried out for the use of forest land for mining as in the case of Lafarge.
Besides, the mine owners will have to get consent to operate, disaster clearance, land registration certificate and labour clearance under relevant rules.
According to sources, the process for getting various clearances will be time consuming.
