SHILLONG, Feb 7: The High Court of Meghalaya on Tuesday severely censured the NPP-led MDA Government for failing to stop illegal mining and transportation of coal in the state, and asserted that it would call in the central armed police forces (CAPF) to monitor and stop such illegal activities.
Hearing the suo-motu PIL in relation to the illegal mining of coal in the state, the full bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee, Justice HS Thangkhiew and Justice W Diengdoh said that in the current scenario and considering that the state has been afforded nearly a year to take appropriate measures and the measures adopted by the state have fallen woefully short, it is necessary to call in the CAPF to monitor and stop the illegal activities pertaining to coal mining that continues in the State.
N Mozika, Deputy-Solicitor General of India, who was present in Court, was requested to take notice on behalf of the Union and to inform the court regarding the formalities for the immediate deployment of sufficient units of either the CISF or the CRPF to completely take over the policing of illegal coal mining activities including the transportation thereof from the state machinery, and that too, at a cost that the state will have to bear for its “abject inefficiency”.
The court also directed the Superintendent of Police of East Jaintia Hills to show cause why punishment for contempt, including detention in jail, should not be suffered by him for the flagrant violation of the court’s orders to check the illegal menace of unscientific coal mining rampant all over the district.
Justice (retd) BP Katakey, who has been tasked by the court to oversee and ensure the disposal of the previously mined coal and to take steps to ensure that the recently illegally mined coal is not passed off as previously mined coal, has filed a further interim report on February 6, 2023 which refers to illegal coal mining and transportation and steps taken by Justice Katakey pursuant a newspaper report on or about January 10, 2023 that three mine workers had reportedly died inside a coal mine in Rymbai in the East Jaintia Hills district.
The Chief Secretary was requested to submit a report as to the veracity of the newspaper report. Justice Katakey’s latest interim report reveals that an FIR was lodged at Ladrymbai Outpost of the Khliehriat police station and a case was registered under Sections 188/304A/34 of the Penal Code read with Section 21(5) of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 following the publication of such report.
Three dead bodies which had been buried on January 10, 2023 were disinterred in terms of the order passed by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Khliehriat and sent for autopsy to the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences. The autopsy reports are awaited.
“Doubtless, the State will furnish such autopsy reports when this matter is taken up next,” the Court said.
The interim report filed by Justice Katakey referred to several cases having been registered pertaining to illegal extraction of coal in the recent months. As to illegal transportation of coal, 31 cases have been registered in December, 2022 and January, 2023.
“Surprisingly, even the rough estimates of the quantity of seized coal have not been indicated in any case. For a start, if 31 cases of illegal transportation have come to light, there must have been several multiples more of illegal transportation that may either have been actively overlooked or may not have come to the notice of the appropriate personnel. Secondly, the failure to even indicate the approximate quantity of the seized coal leaves room for manipulation and there is no doubt that the local officials are involved in such manipulation,” the Court added.
As per the Court order, in recent petitions filed in this Court, there are complaints of continuous illegal coal mining and illegal transportation thereof in the South Garo Hills and Gasuapara appears to be at the centre of such illegal activities in that region just as Rymbai appears to be the heart of the illegal coal mining activity in the Khasi-Jaintia hills.
“While it may be appreciated that a large number of people may have been left without a livelihood upon the ban on unscientific coal mining falling in place, it was the duty of the State to provide alternative forms of livelihood or even temporary succour to the citizens affected by the prohibition. At any rate, it was the initial duty of the state to check the illegal mining of coal, whatever may have been the reason or purpose therefor. As to the class of persons left with no other form of livelihood continuing to indulge in illegal mining of some form, if the state government had been serious in checking the illegal transportation of the illegally mined coal, without any demand for the illegally extracted coal further supplies would have stopped. Unfortunately, the State government has been singularly lacking in taking any proactive step, whether to arrest the continuation of illegal extraction of coal or check the rampant illegal transportation thereof,” the order said.
The full bench also said that despite high officials of the State, including the Chief Secretary, being summoned to Court and a contempt notice being issued against the SP, East Jaintia Hills, by the previous order, the illegal mining and illegal transportation of coal continue unabated and may even have increased in vigour in this election season.
The court also observed that the large-scale unscientific mining of coal in the state may lead to disastrous consequences.
“It appears that coal and limestone are found in abundance in this state. Both minerals have been exploited in an unscientific manner. Lack of education and lack of alternative opportunities may have driven many in the state to exploit primary resources as timber and minerals and families may have been left in the lurch upon the unregulated and unscientific industry in either case being arrested. The kind of coal extraction that the locals here undertake is mainly by rat-hole mining where one or more persons dig a hole with barely enough space to crawl in and chip away the coal from the rock face to physically carry it out. Apart from the immediate risk of the roof of the holes caving in, such activity leaves gaping holes underground, ready to buckle in if there were to be an earthquake. Coupled with this is the presence of limestone underground or on rock sides,” the Court said.
It also said that unregulated extraction of limestone leaves gaps and holes close to the surface. With the abundance of rain in this region and limestone being prone to water erosion, there is a tragedy waiting to happen in the aftermath of the unscientific extraction of such coal and limestone, even as the state plays the proverbial fiddle.
“Without intending to sound apocalyptic or seeking to toll the knell of an imminent doomsday, it takes no rocket science to realise that the recipe is ripe for disaster. The pot is on the boil and it is brewing a calamitous broth. Yet the lure of a quick buck prompts the sentinel to look the other way,” the Court said.
