Editor,
With reference to the report “Blood Coal’: Mining syndicate thrives in Elaka Sutnga amid political protection” published in The Shillong Times dated 9 February, the silence of pressure cannot be explained away as oversight, fear, or lack of access. Silence, in this context, is participation.
For more than a decade, illegal coal mining and transportation have operated openly across East Jaintia Hills. Coal-laden trucks move routinely on public highways, pass through check points, and ply at fixed hours often in convoys. It stretches belief to suggest that organisations which otherwise claim to be vigilant guardians of indigenous rights, employment, and land could have missed such sustained, large-scale activity. Illegal coal transport on this scale does not happen invisibly.
The more plausible explanation is complicity. If pressure groups were truly unaware, then their selective vigilance patrolling highways for migrants while ignoring coal trucks amounts to deliberate blindness. If they were aware, and still chose silence, then they stand morally and politically compromised. Either way, they cannot claim innocence.
More troubling are accounts that point to active facilitation. During a discussion witnessed by this writer, a member of an NGO produced a written list of truck registration numbers allegedly “cleared” to transport coal. The existence of such lists if indeed used to regulate who may and may not ply coal-laden vehicles reveals an organised system of unofficial permission, not random evasion. Illegal transport, sustained over years, requires predictable passage, coordination, and protection. That protection does not come from the jungle alone.
Pressure groups cannot credibly argue that they lack access to mining areas when their influence is clearly sufficient to regulate movement on highways. Nor can they claim concern for indigenous livelihoods while remaining mute as unregulated, dangerous mining kills labourers and devastates land often for the benefit of a small local elite.
Silence, therefore, is not neutrality. It is alignment. If these organisations wish to reclaim moral authority, they must first answer uncomfortable questions: Who controls the movement of coal trucks? Who decides which vehicles pass and which do not? And why has no pressure group, local or regional, publicly condemned the blast at Thangsko or demanded accountability from those who profit from and protect illegal mining operations?
Until such questions are confronted honestly, the silence of pressure groups will continue to be read not as restraint but as evidence of their place within the very racket they claim to oppose.
Yours etc.,
Mantremi H Dkhar,
Via email
Why Meghalaya’s Silence Should Not Be Mistaken for Peace
Editor,
The air in Meghalaya is thick, not with the famous mountain mist, but with a growing sense of betrayal. From the corridors of the Secretariat to the tea stalls, the conversation is the same: how much longer can the people endure a government that seems to prioritize “high-level” interests over the lives of its own citizens?
The wounds of the Mukroh massacre remain open and raw. Five lives were lost defending our soil, yet years later, justice feels like a distant dream. Instead of standing firm, the MDA government’s “Give and Take” policy with Assam has felt more like a “Giveaway.” Villagers in border areas feel abandoned, watching their ancestral lands being signed away on maps by leaders who don’t have to live with the consequences of an encroaching neighbour.
As the Hynñiewtrep Integrated Territorial Organisation (HITO) has rightly pointed out, illegal coal mining has evolved from a secret trade into a blatant “state-enabled” industry. The recent tragedies in illegal pits, like the one at Thangsku, prove that the ban is a myth. When HITO demands a CBI probe, they aren’t just making a political statement; they are echoing the cry for transparency. If the government has nothing to hide, why fear the CBI? The revenue leakage is massive, while our roads crumble and our youth remain unemployed.
Beyond the mines, our society is under siege. The drug epidemic is no longer a “problem”-it is a full-blown crisis stealing an entire generation of Meghalaya’s youth. Combine this with the unresolved relocation of the Harijan Colony and the hollow promises regarding the Inner Line Permit (ILP) to check illegal immigration, and you have a recipe for disaster.
The government must realize that the youth of today are not the silent observers of yesterday. We see the “high-level” corruption, we see the lies, and we see the lack of will. Across the world, from Nepal to Bangladesh, we have seen what happens when Gen-Z reaches its breaking point. When the system fails to protect the land and the people, the people eventually take to the streets to protect themselves.
Meghalaya is at a crossroads. The MDA government must decide: will they continue to serve the rich, or will they finally start serving the people before the fire of public anger becomes impossible to douse?
Yours etc ,
H.Umdor
Shillong-8
Safeguarding Women’s Reproductive Rights
Editor
The Supreme Court ruling that a woman cannot be compelled to continue her pregnancy against her will underscores the importance of women’s reproductive autonomy. Pregnancy is a personal matter and the pregnant woman has the right to choose between continuation or termination of pregnancy. Pregnancy in cases such as pregnant minor girls, pregnant disabled women, rape survivors, fetal abnormalities, miscarriage and so on requires termination. In a society, where the birth of an illegitimate child or the pregnancy of an unwed woman causes social and personal problems, abortion is the best choice. While the unethical aspect of terminating a life in womb is a matter of debate, there is little doubt about the righteousness of the cause. In some cases pregnancy poses serious threat to a woman’s life and abortion in such a situation is justified. The court’s ruling emphasises women’s reproductive autonomy. Forcing a woman to continue an unwanted pregnancy is inhuman and it is not a sign of civilized society. A woman has the right to protect her body and her life and others have no right to pressurise her to do something against her will. Her physical and emotional well being must be given importance.
Yours etc.,
Venu GS,
Kollam
