SHILLONG: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma admitted that in the past, the government did not follow up the Coal Ministry’s 2015 letter on exempting Meghalaya from central mining laws.
The ministry had sent a letter to the Home Ministry a few years ago stating that Meghalaya was exempted from the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act and the Coal Nationalisation Act.
Replying to the debate on the budget in the Assembly here on Wednesday, Sangma said after the letter, the Home Ministry was supposed to invoke Paragraph 12A of the Sixth Schedule to exempt the state from the two laws and it had to be approved by the Cabinet.
Sangma said he had taken up the matter with the two ministries. “The Coal Ministry is now looking into the matter… MMDR and Coal Nationalisation acts cannot be applied in Meghalaya due to its peculiar land tenure (system) where auctioning of mines is not possible,” he added.
However, Sangma made it clear that the state was not seeking any exemption from the environmental and mines safety laws.
The chief minister blamed the previous government for not appealing against the NGT ban on coal mining and pointed out that the MDA government challenged the order in the Supreme Court.
“The economic aspects of coal mining are beyond the jurisdiction of the tribunal though it can adjudicate on environment matters,” he said.
