Panel submits 30th interim report on coal illegalities
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, June 9: The Justice BP Katakey (Retd) committee has expressed unhappiness over the slow process of taking action by the state government under the MMDR Act in respect of 1,96,800.78 MT illegally mined coal found during aerial surveys conducted by M/S Garuda and MBDA.
In its 30th interim report submitted before the High Court of Meghalaya, the committee stressed that necessary actions in the case should be taken under the provisions of MMDR Act urgently or else, there is a possibility of pilferage and transportation of such illegally mined coal from the coordinates mentioned in the aerial survey reports which may lead to complications in taking action under the provisions of the Act.
The committee in its 28th interim report had recorded the existence of 1,92,840.13 MT of illegally mined coal in East Jaintia Hills, West Khasi Hills, South Garo Hills and South West Khasi Hills districts, found during the aerial survey conducted by M/S Garuda.
The existence of illegally mined coal amounting to 2,121.62 MT in Diengngan village and 1,839.03 MT in Rajaju village, both in Ranikor Block of South West Khasi Hills district, has also been recorded by the MBDA in its report on the aerial survey and mentioned in the 29th interim report.
“Thus, in South West Khasi Hills district, while M/S Garuda in the area of survey conducted by them found 797.65 MT, the MBDA has found 3,960.65 MT, totalling 4,758.30 MT illegally mined coal,” the report said.
Based on the report of aerial survey submitted by M/S Garuda, the Mining and Geology Department issued a notification and corrigendum asking the Deputy Commissioners of the four districts to take appropriate actions under the provisions of MMDR Act in respect of the illegally mined coal.
The information furnished by the state government relating to the action taken under the MMDR Act in respect of the 1,96,800.78 MT illegally mined coal revealed that an FIR was lodged with the Shallang police station in West Khasi Hills district on March 28, 2025. Further, it revealed the conduct of verification of the coordinates as well as the quantity of coal dumps as mentioned in the report submitted by M/S Garuda.
Another revelation was that 11,330.05 MT of illegally mined coal was found to be available in the district.
However, following verification, 377.94 MT coal was found to be outside the district.
In East Jaintia Hills district, a joint inspection was carried out by the Executive Magistrate along with the officials of Police Department and Divisional Mining Officer, Jowai, during which 6,010.576 MT of illegally mined coal was found at 2 locations – 3-kilo and 4-Kilo – on the Sutnga road.
Further, at 11 locations mentioned in the report submitted by M/S Garuda, 9.0192 MT illegally mined coal was found during the joint inspection conducted by the DMO, Jowai and the Executive Magistrate, as against 45.83 MT recorded in the report of M/S Garuda. The reason for the disappearance of 36.810 MT coal has not been provided.
The said quantity of illegally mined coal was seized and transported to the centralised depot. An FIR was lodged with the Khliehriat police station.
The committee has also been apprised that the process of verification and action taken on the quantity of illegally mined coal as recorded in the aerial survey report submitted by M/S Garuda is on, which would take some time as the quantity of coal found by M/S Garuda is 1,80,299.48 MT in 1,572 dumps.
In South West Khasi Hills district, teams for verification as well as for taking necessary follow-up actions, in respect of 3,960.65 MT illegally mined coal under the MMDR Act, have been constituted and the report in this regard is yet to be submitted.
On the allegations of illegal coal transportation in Ri-Bhoi, the committee said action needs to be taken against the owner, driver of the vehicle (ML-10-A-4862) as well as the said vehicle under the provisions of the MMDR Act for carrying coal without any MTC.
Even assuming that the said truck has requisite MTC to carry re-assessed/re-verified inventoried coal purchased in the auction conducted by MSTC on behalf of the Coal India Limited (CIL), the said truck was found to have carried more than the permissible limit, which indicates that the additional quantity carried was illegally mined coal as the CIL designated depot cannot allow loading of coal beyond the permissible limit, the report said.
“It, therefore, appears that one of the modus operandi for carrying illegally mined coal is carrying the same beyond the permissible limit of the truck,” the report further said.
This observation was made as the committee in its 28th interim report had mentioned about illegal transportation of coal by the vehicle (ML-10-A-4862) as the MTC was not issued in respect of the said vehicle.
The said vehicle found to have possessed the MTC issued in respect of vehicle bearing registration No. ML-05-AB-2312. In the said interim report, it has also been stated that the plea taken by the driver of the vehicle (ML-10-A-4862) that the coal was transferred to the said vehicle from the vehicle bearing registration No. ML-05-AB-2312, which claimed to have broken down, also could not be substantiated.