SHILLLONG, Aug 4: Adviser to Chief Minister Alexander Laloo Hek said that the coal from various parts of the state are being transported to Assam and exported to Bangladesh. This is continuing even now.
“Coal mining and transportation is going on and we cannot deny this fact. Everyone is seeing coal-laden trucks plying on the roads on a daily basis,” Hek, who is also the BJP MLA in the state, said while speaking to The Shillong Times here on Thursday.
The former Cabinet minister said that the state government should take steps to stop all illegal mining and transportation of coal.
“All such activities should be stopped till the time the government is able to put in place a system to start scientific mining of coal in the state,” Hek, who is also a member of the National Executive of the BJP said.
According to him, the state exchequer is not benefitting from such illegal activities.
Meanwhile, Hek lauded Rajya Sabha member Rakesh Sinha for raising the issue of illegal mining and transportation of coal in the Parliament.
“I really appreciate this effort of Sinha and his show of concern about the illegalities which are taking place in the state,” Hek said.
Earlier, TMC MLA and opposition leader, Dr Mukul Sangma, had stated that coal extracted illegally from Meghalaya is being passed off as coal from Assam and exported to Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, Union Minister of Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs Prahlad Joshi was once again found giving a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on coal mining in Meghalaya which was far from the truth.
In a written reply in the Upper House to a question raised by Prof Rakesh Sinha on August 1, the minister asserted that no coal production has been reported in Meghalaya in the last four years as per information received from Coal Controller Organisation (CCO).
This statement, strangely, bears no resemblance with the ground reality as is evident from the overwhelming number of expose on illegal coal mining and transportation in the state.
The minister also informed the Rajya Sabha that the estimated coal resources in Meghalaya as per Coal Inventory of India published by Geology Survey of India (GSI) on April 1, 2021, is 576.48 MT.
Joshi went on to say that the National Green Tribunal, in its order dated June 9, 2014, noticed that there has been serious air, water and environmental pollution being caused by the illegal, unregulated and indiscriminate rat-hole mining being carried on in various parts of Meghalaya, follow which coal mining was banned in 2014.
