Transit passes for 1.5 lakh MT of coal yet to be issued by district admin
SHILLONG, Feb 9: The High Court of Meghalaya on Friday expressed concern over the failure of the concerned authorities to issue transit passes for 1.5 lakh MT of re-inventoried coal in East Jaintia Hills District and directed the deputy commissioner to complete transportation of the stock of coal to the designated depots within February, failing which the coal will be seized and taken into custody by the state government and auctioned off within one month thereafter, by Coal India Limited.
The court said that the sale proceeds of such seized coal shall be entirely deposited into the government fund, after payment to the Coal India Limited for the auction, and levy as applicable to the Meghalaya Environmental Protection and Restoration Fund (MEPRF).
During the hearing on a PIL on illegal mining and transportation of coal, the court took note of the updated status report and reply submitted by the state government on the 19th interim report filed by Justice (retd) BP Katakey.
The court said that the status report has provided information regarding the transportation of remaining re-inventoried coal in various districts from the pitheads to the designated depots of Coal India Limited.
The court expressed satisfaction that the process of issuance of transit passes and transportation of the entire remaining re-inventoried coal from the pitheads to the depots in South Garo Hills, West Khasi Hills, and South West Khasi Hills districts will be completed by the end of February.
“A point of concern is with regard to the status report of East Jaintia Hills District, wherein it has been indicated that out of the total quantity of 10.04 lakh MT of re-inventoried coal, transit passes are yet to be issued for the remaining 1.5 lakh MT in spite of availability of space in the depots in the district,” the court said.
The government, in its status report, submitted that the delay occurred since coal owners were not approaching the office of the Deputy Commissioner to apply for the transit passes, in spite of public notices being issued.
The court directed the concerned authorities to publish public notices and widely circulate the information with regards to transit passes.
“It has also been set out in the status report that other compliances are under way with regard to the processing of the applications for scientific coal mining in the state, the closure of existing coalmine pits, the setting up of integrated check gates with mineral tracking and as also the status of audit of source of coal used by the coke oven plants/ferro alloy plants and cement plants,” the court noted.
In the meantime, Justice Katakey submitted a 20th interim report to the court with certain recommendations and observations. The court directed the High Court Registry to supply copies to all the concerned parties and ordered the state government to furnish a fresh status report on the next date of hearing on March 14.