SHILLONG: With the National Green Tribunal (NGT) detecting discrepancy in the declared quantity of extracted coal and the assessed quantity, a decision on fixing further date for the transportation of extracted coal and payment of royalty is likely to be delayed.
When the issue of ban on coal mining came up for hearing on Thursday in New Delhi, the NGT pointed out that while the declared quantity of coal by the coal dealers was 1.23 crore metric tonnes, the assessed quantity by authorities concerned was 87 lakh metric tonnes thereby resulting in a balance of 36,45,599 metric tonnes of non-assessed coal which needs to explained. Supreme Court lawyer Ranjan Mukherjee, who is the counsel for the State government, said over phone from Delhi that the question was raised by NGT regarding the remaining 36,45,599 metric tonnes of coal.
According to Mukherjee, over 36 lakh metric tonnes of coal was lying inside the mines for which royalty was already paid and this will be reasonably explained to the NGT during the next hearing on December 21.
