On rare occasions have courts taken such strong note of dereliction of duty from the State Government but this was warranted in public interest. The irony is that a Government tasked with protecting the interests of the State and its people by conserving the environment and which is provided adequate resources to do so, is instead complicit in the act of wanton illegal mining thereby defrauding the state exchequer of much needed revenue. All regulatory authorities have failed to check the impact of such anthropogenic activities on the environment. The Justices were bang on target when they pronounced that Meghalaya is quickly transformed from the Abode of Cloud to the Abode of Anarchy. That the Advocate General’s office has spent a total of Rs 20.22 crore between 2018-2021, all paid from the public exchequer to defend the State’s malpractices particularly in the area of mining is a mockery of the system. A question on this issue was raised in the just concluded Assembly session.
Meghalaya has reached a point where public disenchantment with the system is complete. Even the apex Court order that had passed strictures on mining and ordered the State to adhere to the MMDR Act 1957 and stop rat hole mining has failed to get its orders implemented on the ground, in the absence of an independent monitoring agency. Its near impossible to correct the system unless strong penal action ensures that those who regularly flout the laws, especially those that affect the environment and which in turn affect humans and other living beings, are put behind bars. Take the case of a particular Deputy Commissioner who was serving in East Jaintia Hills when the Ksan mining tragedy that killed 15 miners inside a rat hole. He presided over the illegal mining saga then and continues to do the same when posted as DC South Garo Hills bordering West Khasi Hills where the Nengchigen illegal coal mining saga was revealed. It is reported that the DC South Garo Hills visited the mines after the media reported the matter. Is it possible that this Deputy Commissioner has no inkling that coal mining was happening there or was he posted there to facilitate what he successfully did in east Jaintia Hills? Catastrophe of governance occurs when those entrusted with maintenance of law and order break it with impunity.
The other question that arises is whether such officers will have to face legal action or will they continue to get away with their repeated wrongdoings? Whose cause are they serving? The public cause or that of political executives, because the crumbs flow to their own kitty too, else why would they risk their careers to facilitate wrongdoing?