SHILLONG: A legal notice was served to Chief Secretary MS Rao against import of coal from Assam.
Advocate of High Court of Meghalaya, AS Siddiqui said in the notice that the National Green Tribunal on January 17 had come to the conclusion that ten cement plants in the state consumed 59,47,798 MT of coal during the period of 2014-2019 in their plants from legal sources but two-thirds of the requirement was met from illegally mined coal.
The legal notice was sent on May 18 on behalf of Ajmal Khongthaw, a resident of Lapalang.
According to the notice, the demand for a huge quantity of illegally mined coal from these plants has also sustained and supported a wide scale illegal rat-hole coal mining in Meghalaya in flagrant violation of ban imposed by the NGT besides causing immense loss to the public exchequer.
The letter also reminded the state government about NGT holding the government responsible and imposing a fine of Rs 100 crore.
According to the lawyer, the state government has to spend Rs 100 crore for restoration of the environment thereby draining the state exchequer for the illegal activities of the cement plants by way of abetting rat hole mining.
Moreover, a large quantity of coal was exported to Bangladesh and the NGT had also sought an independent probe into the matter.
The lawyer pointed out that instead of taking action against the cement plants, the government is allowing them to import coal from Assam.
The notice also pointed out that in the garb of importing coal to the cement plants, it is apprehended that coal would be procured from rat hole mining.
