NGT panel wants foolproof mechanism for transportation
SHILLONG: The coal auction policy will be finalised on November 21.
This was decided on Thursday in a meeting chaired by the NGT panel headed by retired judge BP Katakey along with officials of Coal India Limited and the state government.
Katakey said the draft coal policy was discussed by the committee during the meeting but he had made certain suggestions to be incorporated by the government.
JK Borah, the general manager of Coal India Ltd in-charge of North East, said the next meeting scheduled for November 21 will be able to finalise the coal auction policy.
“We hope that the NGT committee will be able to finalise the coal auction policy in the November 21 meeting”, he said.
Without divulging the content of the policy, the CIL official said it will help to dispose of the already extracted coal with due procedure.
According to Katakey, there were some discrepancies in the draft coal auction policy and hence he suggested some changes.
“We will examine the second draft on November 21 after the government effects the changes”, Katakey said.
What the NGT committee wanted is that there should be a foolproof mechanism during the transportation of coal and the movement of trucks should be videographed and there should be representatives of the government and the CIL at the checkpoints to monitor the transportation.
Another suggestion of Katakey is to fix the price of per tonne of coal to be transported as there are different grades of coal.
He said the committee will examine whether the current rate fixed by the government is adequate or not.
The NGT panel also wanted to know the modalities for the export of coal to Bangladesh.
Another meeting today
The panel will hold another meeting with the state government officials on environmental issues on Friday.
“The issues related to illegal coal mining and transportation and the steps taken by the government to comply with the action plan will be discussed in the meeting”, Katakey said.
To a question, Katakey said there is a need to provide adequate compensation to the victims of coal mine tragedies, including those from Ksan, East Jaintia Hills.
When pointed out over the delay in providing more compensation to the families of 16 victims of Ksan mine tragedy, Katakey said, “I am in favour of providing adequate relief to the families”.