Lack of transparency irks panel chief
SHILLONG: Retired judge B P Katakey, who heads the NGT panel on coal, said on Saturday that he would move the NGT against denial of information by the state government regarding the quantity of extracted coal.
The NGT had appointed Katakey committee to monitor the developments following the ban on coal mining and transportation.
“We have to move NGT as the government refused to give break-up and other details about the 32 lakh metric tons of already extracted coal”, Katakey said on Saturday. The auction of 32 lakh metric tons of coal is likely to be finalised in the next meeting on November 21. The Katakey committee will monitor the auction process and the transportation of coal.
During the meeting with the state government officials on Friday, the government made it clear that the information regarding the extracted coal cannot be provided to the NGT appointed panel.
According to Katakey, since the government had filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court informing about 32 lakh metric tons of coal, there should not be any harm in disclosing details about the extracted coal. He said the state government officials gave contradictory replies on the illegal transportation of coal though there were several instances of illegal mining of coal and transportation.
Earlier, the NGT panel wanted to know about the transport of coal to Bangladesh as he had suspected certain discrepancies.
Katakey is unhappy with the reply of the Customs officials that they are not required to verify whether trucks carrying coal to Bangladesh have necessary permits or not from the state government.
According to Katakey, as there is a ban on coal mining by NGT since 2014, the Customs officials are mandated to check illegal transportation of coal.