Shillong, April 21: The process for the identification of areas and strategic spots for the deployment of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) to check illegal transportation of coal in Meghalaya is on.
Informing this, Justice B.P. Katakey said, “The High Court recently issued directions expecting that the GOI will deploy ten companies of police force. We are in the process of identifying the strategic points where these deployments should be for the purpose of checking illegal transportation”.
Katakey, a retired judge of the Gauhati High Court, was appointed by the Meghalaya High Court to ascertain whether the State government cracked down on illegal coal mining in accordance with the direction of the Supreme Court and the NGT.
Justice Katakey siad, “As you know the high Court in the last order had said that there will be one officer from meghalaya police to be identified by the High Court, therefore it is not on me to identify but as a whole I am discussing with the police department for the purpose of identification”.
“Preliminary identification of areas or the spot where the deployments will be so that as soon as the deployments are made I can speak to the commandants of those units that these are the areas and if they have any other view we will definitely discuss,” he added.
Agreeing that deployment of the central forces to check illegal transportation of coal may be a game changer, he said, “There may be additional check posts as the whole idea is to stop the transportation and if we are successful in stopping the transportation the mining will automatically stop”.
Giving out his assessment of illegal coal trade, he recalled that on April 4 when he was coming to Shillong he came across a capsized truck carrying illegal coal the photographs of which he shared with the High Court and the Government.
He however said that the State government was quick to respond and an MPS officer was appointed to conduct the inquiry and while the preliminary report has been submitted, the final report is awaited.