By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, March 20: The Opposition Congress on Saturday criticised the state government for not investigating the 250 registered cases of Illegal mining and transportation of coal diligently.
Referring to Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma’s reply in the recently-concluded Budget session of the state Assembly, Congress legislator from Umroi, George Lyngdoh said, “Our member from Shillong West was very categorical in his question about those 250 cases, but there was no clear-cut reply.
The Shillong West MLA had asked where the coal came from and whether these cases were investigated.
The Chief Minister had a few days ago said 95 people were arrested and 250 cases registered so far over illegal mining and transportation of coal in the state.
Stating that the issue of coal auctioning has been in discussion from various Assembly sessions, Lyngdoh said: “The assurance from the government from time to time is that the auction process will start following the Supreme Court order in 2019 but the process of bringing the coal to depots is yet to be seen on the ground.”
“In the meantime, we see coal-laden trucks across the state. Whether those trucks are going toward the depots or outside the state is for the government to find out. Our job is to highlight and we did with facts. But if the government does not want to listen, what can we do,” he said.
The Umroi MLA referred to the Chief Minister’s statement that all trucks plying on the highway may not carry coal.
“My constituency sees a lot of movement and in the past few weeks when Dwar Ksuid bridge was not fit for heavy vehicles, a lot of trucks passed through Shillong city and many had turned turtle.
You need to decide whether they were carrying coal or not,” he said.