SHILLONG: The Opposition Congress, as was anticipated, tried to corner the ruling coalition on the issue of illegal mining and transportation of coal in the state Assembly on Monday. The issue of coal dominated the questions and answer hour of the second day of the Autumn Session with the Opposition Congress firing a barrage of salvos at the government.
Associate member of UDP Syntar Klas Sunn raised the question on whether mining lease had been given to any agency to carry out coal mining operations in privately owned, community owned land in the state in accordance with approved mining plan as per Act 1957 and Mineral Concession rules 1960 following the Supreme Court order of July 2019.
In reply, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said that all these mining leases were under process and till date the process was not completed and only after that mining would start.
Giving an insight into the process involved, the chief minister said that the land owner will have to have an agreement with the lessee and engage with companies for exploration, geological reports and submit it to the state government who will in turn send it to the ministry of coal for approval.
He said that it is a process that is there which requires details steps to be followed and only then the license is given. Referring to the question he said that no mining lease had so far been given.
Raising a supplementary question, Sunn questioned that in 2018, there was a declaration by the Commissioner Secretary of Mining and Geology that there were 23,25,663 metric tons of coal and again after four months on June 06, 2018, the Commissioner Secretary again declared that there were 32,56715 MT.
Sunn questioned the sudden rise of the quantity from 23 lakh to 32 lakh MT in a span of four months.
Replying to this, the chief minister said that in 2015 when assessment was done 1.4 crore MT approx was declared. Post that the assessment done by NGT Committee assessed 95 lakh MT. He reasoned that there was already of gap of approx 40,000 MT in the declared and assessed coal and so he stated there was no rise in quantity of coal which was already declared.
Congress MLA Zenith M Sangma sought a specific reply from the chief minister as to the reason behind the rise in the estimate of extracted coal from 23 lakh MT to 32 lakh MT in a span of four months. He questioned whether 32 lakh metric ton of coal was physically there or not and if yes what are the steps taken to auction them off?
No sooner had the chief minister started to reply going back to yesteryear than Sangma interrupted and asked for a specific reply stating that he need not beat around the bush.
What followed next was a heated exchange of words with Zenith Sangma demanding a specific reply while the chief minister insisting that a little history and backgrounder was required for getting a clearer picture.
The chief minister even called the Rangsakona MLA “immature” for disturbing him from giving a reply and blamed the Congress regime for creating that 32 lakh MT coal during their regime.
“This creation is not ours it was created in 2014. He should have questioned when he was in the government,” said the chief minister.
Pointing out that the entire process was done with the involvement of officers from various departments and also submitted to the NGT, the chief minister said that the 32 lakh MT of coal is very much there.
Justifying the delay in auctioning the 32 lakh MT of coal, the chief minister said that the permission to auction was given to auction it through the Coal India Limited (CIL) and discussions were held at the plan was submitted to NGT on September 7, 2019.
He however said that the approval was not given as the NGT had asked for changes and the necessary changes were made and submitted again on November 14, 2019. However no decision was made and soon the NGT Committee chairman resigned and a new Chairman was appointed in January 2020.
He informed that on February 14, 2020 another meeting was held and in March 12, 2020 there was a change in Coal India Limited and based on that the CIL reviewed the plan and asked changes to make again. “We made the modification and submitted it on July 27 and subsequently transportation of the coal from mines to depot was allowed,” he said.
Stating that NGT has made it mandatory for the state government to transport the coal from the mines to the depots, the chief minister said that tenders were flouted at central level and there were no response but the state government did manage to get a response from the district level.
Informing that the new process requires the state government to put a new depot in various locations, weigh bridge, office building, electricity and an empowerment portal, the chief minister said, “The online portal has been launched, five depot in 4 districts are ready, the transporters are engaged, transportation in East Jaintia Hills is going on and the process in other districts will start”.
He further said that for all these challenges involved the state government was not able to do the auctioning. “We are close to it and were able to comply with the Supreme Court and NGT guidelines,” he added.
Congress MLA from Umroi, George Lyngdoh made a pointed query that when coal mining operations had not started and 32 lakh MT was still in the process of auction, where are the trucks carrying coal coming from?
Replying to this, the chief minister said that there was a legal provision that allows all seized illegal or unclaimed coal to be disposed of.
Informing that on March 13, 2019 the state government had come out with notification on how it should be done, the chief minister said that that there were 5-6 instances of unclaimed being coal seized by the government based on this provisions.
Talking about the process he said that the deputy commissioners and DMOs check the location, assess the coal and submit the report to the Chief Judicial Magistrate and based on that the CJM directs the DCs to auction the seized coal and challans are given.
Participating in the question and answer hour, Senior Congress MLA, Ampareen Lyngdoh requested the Assembly Speaker to consider constituting a house committee stating that a lot of confusion prevails on the issue.
However, Deputy Chief Minister, Prestone Tynsong said that as responsible leaders many rush to the media for playing blame game and that there is no need to constitute a house committee as the chief minister had already replied to the queries and they seem convinced.
Yet another Congress MLA, Winnerson Sangma requested the state government to provide the exact location, GPRS coordinates and quantity of the extracted coal to which the Chief Minister replied that there are 1.34 crore MT of assessed coal and 95 lakhs MT declared.
On the locations of the coal, he said that there approx 3-4000 such locations.