Shillong, April 20: Mehalaya government has welcomed the decision of the Meghalaya High Court to appoint a former judge of the Gauhati High Court, Justice BP Katakey to ascertain whether the state government has complied with the directives of the Supreme Court (SC) and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) for cracking down on illegal coal mining.
The Court said Justice Katakey should file a preliminary report on the compliance of the orders of the SC and the NGT and what more needs to be done, within four weeks.
It may be noted that Justice Katakey had in 2019 resigned as Chairman of the NGT panel, constituted by the Tribunal and endorsed by the Supreme Court, to finalise the mode and manner of the auction of over 32 lakh metric tonnes of coal lying in various places across the state.
It was rumoured that Katakey resigned following the government’s refusal to divulge details of the already extracted coal.
Reacting to this, Tynsong said the same is not true and that the government welcomes the decision of the government.