By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Jan 20: Justice (retd) BP Katakey, who is heading the inquiry into coal-related illegalities in the state, on Friday said the actual amount of extracted coal is 19 lakh metric tonne (MT) or less as per his findings and not 32 lakh MT as provided by the state government.
He said of the total stock, 3 lakh MT has already been transported. “According to my findings, it was not 32 lakh metric tonne of coal as was earlier told by the government to the Supreme Court. It is only 19 lakh metric tonne or less. It cannot be more than 19 lakh metric tonne,” Katakey told The Shillong Times after a sitting of the inquiry committee at the secretariat on Friday.
Stating that he had earlier issued a direction for a drone survey in respect of the inventoried coal, he said, “I am expecting the report of the first survey within a week. It cannot be more than 19 lakh metric tonne.”
Katakey said his job is to ensure the auction of the extracted coal. “I have also directed the deputy commissioners of the four districts concerned to transport as much as possible…to the capacity of coal depots so that capacity is maximised. I have also directed them to look for other places which can be used as coal depots,” he said.
He said the meeting on Friday was called to ensure the transportation of reassessed inventorised coal from the site to the CIL depots and also to take stock of the auction process.
“It appears that a little over 2 lakh metric tonne of coal has been transported to various depots in the state and it is available for auction now.
The DMR office will issue the communication to the CIL to put those 3 lakh MT odd quantity of coal,” he said.
Asked about grey areas, he said, “Certain NOCs issued earlier were not required to be issued at all as there is no legal requirement.”
Stating that some amount of coal was possibly transported by the railway taking advantage of the NOCs, he said he has directed officials to verify it.
Chairman of the independent committee, Naba Bhattacharjee said instructions were issued to those who have not lifted the auctioned coal but deposited the money. Instructions have been issued to immediately forfeit their security and put the coal for re-auction, he said.
Elaborating it, Justice Katakey said, “We had put certain time to deposit coal value and if you do not do that your security deposit will be forfeited. We have seen that around 15,000 metric tonne of coal has not been lifted to coal depots.”
He said once the challans are issued, the coal has to be transported within the given time. He said there will be no revalidation. He said there should not be any loading and unloading in Meghalaya of whatever coal, which comes from outside and passes through the state for transportation outside the country.
The committee is slated to meet again on February 1.
The High Court of Meghalaya had appointed Justice Katakey, a retired judge of the Gauhati High Court, on April 19 to ascertain whether the state government has cracked down on illegal coal mining as directed by the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal (NGT). He had resigned as chairman of a panel, constituted by the NGT and endorsed by the Supreme Court, in December 2019 citing personal reasons.
It was constituted on August 31, 2018 to finalise the mode and manner of auction of the coal lying in various places across the state.
It was later revealed that the actual reason behind Justice Katakey’s resignation was the state government’s refusal to divulge the details of the already extracted coal. The state government even wrote to the committee stating that it had no jurisdiction to seek such information.
