Recent raids conducted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on the cartel involved in illegal coal mining in Meghalaya have established one fact. There is a deep nexus between politicians, businesspersons, sections of the bureaucracy and the police in the continued transportation of coal from different regions of Meghalaya through Assam to other states and also to Bangladesh. In fact, Bangladesh is a recipient of undue favours from Meghalaya where whole hills and mountains are pulverised to supply unlimited quantities of limestone, boulders and sand to that country. Drivers doing the Shillong-Guwahati or the Shallang-Dudhnoi-Assam route all know that coal is regularly being transported out. The police have learnt to look the other way and are paid for doing so. Officials of the Transport Department who provide challans to these coal carrying trucks are also the culprits. That they are all acting at the behest of those in power while also making money on the sly is a no brainer. Sadly, this has been allowed to happen under the watch of respective DGPs in Meghalaya.
Here the Police Department does not adopt professionalism and outcome-based policing as yardsticks for performance indicators. Police are regularly promoted by virtue of their seniority. Law enforcement continues to fail. Those in the profession including direct recruits from the Indian Police Service (IPS) have learnt to negotiate their way in the twists and turns of Meghalaya’s political weathervane. They prefer to. soft pedal on issue rather than take on criminals- some with connections to the higher echelons of governance. This politician-police-bureaucrat nexus is so entrenched that anyone attempting to dismantle it has to pay the price. Even today when the ED raid has clearly exposed that illegal coal mining continues to thrive, there is complete denial from ministers in government. To state that the coal transported out is what was extracted prior to 2014 when the NGT ban on coal mining was enforced and that because such coal is stocked deep inside forests, policing is difficult, is a complete eyewash. That ministers of the Government should be repeating this lie is a sad commentary on the MDA Government. Justice (retired)BP Katakey who is heading the one-man committee as mandated by the Meghalaya High Court has been discharging his duties responsibly but even he faces stiff resistance from the establishment.
Now that the Government claims to have succeeded in getting the compliance of the central government on scientific coal mining – the question to ask is – what really is scientific coal mining and is that possible in the Meghalaya terrain. Instead of working towards making coal mining legal, can the Meghalaya Government seek central help to address environmental degradation due to reckless mining in the past and of reclaiming the abandoned coalfields – a task laid out several decades ago but which remains unaddressed? When the government is hands in gloves with and actively supporting those breaking the law then what governance can citizens expect? When will the Meghalaya Police learn to function independently and enforce the rule of law? Occasional busting of the drug trafficking nexus is not the end all and be all of policing.
