SHILLONG, March 6: The state BJP has pinned its hopes on the Meghalaya High Court and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to take cognisance and end the rampant destruction of the environment through illegal stone quarries in Garo Hills, the illegalities of which extend across the international border till Bangladesh.
“The High Court and NGT should take cognisance of illegal stone quarries in Garo Hills. Several illegal quarries are being run in Pipulbari areas and in East Garo Hills. Illegal quarries run freely in the plain areas and boulders are exported to Bangladesh on payment of ‘Goonda Tax’ at the rate of Rs 2,500 per truck,” state BJP vice president and Tura MDC, Bernard M Marak, said on Sunday while appreciating the suo motu cognisance taken by the High Court into the issue of illegal rat-hole mining in Nengchigen village in West Khasi Hills.
Marak said overloaded trucks carrying boulders ply freely through Tura town at night without documents and without any fear of police checking due to high-level involvement.
The overloaded trucks have damaged the roads in many places in Tura and even the Tura-Dalu road construction work has been badly affected, the BJP leader said, pointing out that the road near Civil Surgeon’s office in Tura upto Babupara has sunk at some point and are badly damaged on the left side of the road.
Questioning how the trucks are allowed to operate without proper challan, weighbridge and absence of police checking, he said, “If such activities are not stopped by the government, the honourable Court will be our last hope.”
“People at the highest level benefit from these illegal quarries and illegal transportation,” he said, adding that such movement of trucks causes inconvenience to the public in general, delays development and results in huge revenue loss to the exchequer.