NEWDELHI: After days of hearing in the Supreme Court on ban on coal mining in Meghalaya, the Amicus Curiae and senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, argued on Friday that there are fundamental problems with the land tenure system in the hill state.
Many rich and powerful people are involved in this manmade crisis, who want the ban to be lifted and that mining should continue, he said.
Earlier, the state government had proposed certain amendments in the MMDR Act and is sticking to its stand that the law should be changed by the way of amendments for particular areas.
Colin pointed out that the land tenure system in Meghalaya is flawed as the land owners do not possess individual pattas and the clan or community owns the land.
Colin justified the action of the NGT by saying
that if an owner is carrying on mining operations in his own land without permission, that coal maybe recovered by the state.
Quoting extensively from the citizens’ report — the Curse of Unregulated Coal Mining in Meghalaya — Colin said that tribals are not benefited much from the coal mining.
After hearing the arguments, the bench posted the case for next hearing on Tuesday.
