It has been proved beyond any shadow of doubt that illegal coal mining and transportation has been going on in Meghalaya even after the ban on rat hole mining by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in April 2014. The NGT banned rat hole mining after some miners died inside a mine in Garo Hills. Mines are known to flood especially during the rainy season or late autumn when the water that collects in abandoned mines floods into a new mine nearby. When that happens miners are buried alive but in the past such incidents never came to light. In 2018 December the Ksan mine tragedy that trapped 15 people inside came into the limelight after a public spirited Delhi-based lawyer with a humanitarian concern for the poor miners filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court.
After several hearings and representations by lawyers for the defendants (coal mine owners) and the state advocate general, the Supreme Court in July 2019 ruled in favour of lifting the NGT ban on coal mining but on specific conditions. The Supreme Court ruling said “We clarify that in event mining operations are undertaken in privately owned/community owned land in Hills Districts of Meghalaya in accordance with mining lease with approved mining plan as per the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 and Mineral Concessions Rule, 1960, the ban order dated 17.04.2014 of the tribunal of the NGT shall not come in way of carrying mining operations.” The MDA Government has not complied with the directives of the Supreme Court. Till date Meghalaya has no mining plan or policy which should be in line with the MMDR Act, 1957. The MMDR Act does not espouse rat hole mining because it is fraught with danger and has already claimed several lives thereby violating Article 21 of the Constitution.
The MDA Government is under pressure from the coal lobby, some of whom are part of the government, not to come up with a Mining Policy as that would cut into their profits. It is more profitable for the coal lobby to continue with the rat hole mining method and use migrant labourers for the purpose. The Ksan mine tragedy was followed by another at Krem Ule and the latest one where miners died of asphyxiation in a mine in Shallang, West Khasi Hills. In recent times the Meghalaya High Court has taken up the issue of river pollution with the seriousness it deserves and passed stringent orders which the State Government has to comply with. There is a strong feeling among the public that the Meghalaya High Court should now take suo-moto action and direct the CBI to enquire into the repeated cases of miners’ deaths and illegal coal mining and transportation in the State.
