NONGSTOIN/ SHILLONG, Feb 20: Three days after the death of two coal labourers from Assam inside a coal quarry at Shallang area in West Khasi Hills, the mine owner surrendered before Shallang Police on Sunday after which he was formally arrested.
West Khasi Hills Superintendent of Police, Herbert G Lyngdoh said the mine owner, Alfred Rongrin of Kyllon Mathei, surrendered at Shallang police station. He was accompanied by his family members.
Rongrin had gone missing after the two labourers Sukur Ali (35) and Ainuddin Ali (35), residents of Boko, Kamrup in Assam had gone to Langmar coal quarry area to survey the abandoned and unused coal quarry on being instructed by the mine owner and reportedly died inside the quarry due to asphyxiation.
After initial denial, police registered a suo motu case under the MMDR Act at Shallang police station.
Govt permits exporter to transport coal
The Mining and Geology department recently issued an order allowing one Shedrak Dkhar from East Jaintia Hills to export coal transported from outside the state to Bangladesh through the Land Custom Station (LCS) at Dawki.
As per the order issued on January 28, the state government granted permission to Dkhar to export 45,600 MT of coal originating from “outside the state” to Bangladesh through the Dawki LCS subject to the fulfillment of conditions laid down by the government from time to time.
The order also stated that the validity of transportation will be for a period of 45 days from the date of issuing of the order.
However, a government source, who did not wish to be named, alleged that this order was issued just to pave the way for illegal transportation of extracted coal from Meghalaya.
As of now, only coal auctioned by the Coal India Limited (CIL) is allowed to be exported as per the directives of the National Green Tribunal.
It may be mentioned that the NGT committee had approved, on a pilot basis, auction of 2 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of coal out of the 32 lakh metric tonnes of extracted and audited coal.
When contacted, a senior official on Sunday said they had issued this order since only coal auctioned by the CIL is allowed to be exported or transported outside the state.
“We have issued the order after receiving the request from the concerned coal exporter. We are not privy to the source from where the coal exporter is transporting coal from outside the state to Bangladesh via Dawki,” the senior official said on condition of anonymity.
Replying to a query, the official said the coal exporter would need to take responsibility if there is any attempt to misuse the order by illegally transporting extracted coal from the state.
“There is no illegality about purchasing coal from outside the state. But if they are transporting coal from Meghalaya then action would be taken. We can even arrest the exporter if there is a complaint of illegal transportation of coal by misusing the order issued by the department,” the official said.
He asserted that there is no ban for anyone to bring coal from outside. “We are going to monitor to ensure that the concerned coal exporter abides by the conditions which have been laid down in the order,” he added.
Political observers, however, scoff at the notification saying that it is yet another ploy to reroute the coal mined from Jaintia Hills and other parts of the state through the lucrative Dawki-Tamabil border.
“Why should coal from Assam, Bhutan, Nagaland or anywhere outside Meghalaya be transported through such a long route that would cost the exporter so much more?” they questioned, adding that the MDA Government is using every trick of the trade to transport the illegally mined coal and mining has been going on every day.