TURA, Jan 4: The United A’chik Youth Federation (UANF) from South West Khasi Hills has questioned the National Green Tribunal (NGT) for failing to give an ear to its earlier demand for investigation into the coal auction order allegedly issued by the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Ranikor Civil Sub-Division.
In a statement issued here on Monday, Sanggra Marak, the president of the federation, claimed that as per the order, the actual amount of coal available for auction had been falsified.
According to him, a complaint on the matter was filed by the federation with the Chairman of the NGT on December 7 last year, but no action has been taken till date.
“We want to ask how a completely unreal and fabricated figure of the quantity of coal could be brought to auction when in reality it doesn’t exist. This clearly indicates the existence and practice of rat-hole mining notwithstanding the Supreme Court’s prohibition on the practice. This also shows that fresh mining is being done to balance off the quantity mentioned in the order,” Marak alleged.
Warning that the federation was ready to take further course of action, Marak made a fresh demand that action be taken on the matter and a probe be initiated by the NGT at the earliest.
