SHILLONG, Oct 12: Justice (retd) BP Katakey, who led the inquiry into coal-related illegalities in the state, on Wednesday, said he is not sure whether illegal mining is going on or not, but he is certain that illegal transportation of coal continues.
This, he said, has been mentioned in his report submitted to the High Court of Meghalaya.
“I can’t say whether illegal mining is going on but one thing is sure – transportation is going on, which I mentioned in my report to the high court,” Katakey said.
He also said this fact has to be accepted by the government as cases of illegal transportation of coal have been registered in the state.
“Had there been no illegal transportation of coal, cases would not have been registered at all,” he added.
Katakey further said the high court has directed the authorities to take up the issue of 29 coke plants. None of these plants is in operation, according to his report based on the information provided by the state government.
“According to the state government, the consent to establish granted to these plants was cancelled. As of now, they neither have the consent to establish nor the consent to operate,” he said.
Both types of consent are needed to operate the plants.
He recalled informing the high court in one of his reports that more than 80 coke plants are in operation in the state.
“But I cannot talk on the other coke plants as the high court had asked me to look into the 29. I cannot do anything other than what the high court directs,” Katakey said.
POLICY
The inquiry committee during its sitting on Wednesday has also finalised a comprehensive policy for the transportation as well as auction of coal.
Stating that in terms of the Supreme Court order, the comprehensive policy for the transportation and auction of coal was not finalised till date for many reasons, he said, “In today’s proceeding, we could finalise that. At least this is a positive step I could take as the comprehensive plan has been finalised which would be notified by the Meghalaya government in a short period of time is what was assured to me”.
He said his next step would be to ascertain the exact quantity of extracted coal available. As per the state government, it was mentioned that there was more than 32 lakh metric ton (MT) of extracted coal post-NGT ban in 2014 but he needs to know exactly.
In South West Khasi Hills, there was 3.19 lakh MT of extracted coal, out of which 3.08 lakh MT is done with and reassessment of 6,000 MT is yet to be made. The case is similar with South Garo Hills.
Pointing out that a major chunk of coal is available in East Jaintia Hills, Katakey said that 50 per cent assessment on the availability of coal is complete. The Deputy Commissioner in Wednesday’s meeting has assured Katakey that the entire assessment will be done by October 14.
He informed that policy talks about how the transportation is to be carried out and challans are to be prepared besides what features are to be included in the challans.
He further informed that a case apart from the registration number of the vehicle , the name of the driver, owner route to be taken have to be mentioned in the challans and every truck must have a GPS system and follow the designated route.
Pointing out that there are various media reports that point towards misuse of challans, the retired Justice said that aspect is also being looked into by the panel.
The High Court of Meghalaya had appointed Justice Katakey, a former judge of the Gauhati High Court, on April 19 to ascertain whether the state government has complied with the directives of the Supreme Court and the NGT to crack down on illegal coal mining. It may be noted that Justice Katakey had resigned as Chairman of the NGT panel, constituted by the Tribunal and endorsed by the Supreme Court, in December 2019 citing personal reasons.
The panel was appointed on August 31, 2018, to finalise the mode and manner of auction of over 32 lakh metric tonnes of coal lying in various places across the state to be conducted by CIL.
It was later revealed that the actual reason behind Katakey’s resignation was that the state government had refused to divulge details of the already extracted coal. The state government had even written to the committee that it had no jurisdiction to seek such information.
