SHILLONG: In spite of widespread allegations of illegal mining and transportation of coal and the questions being raised on the government’s complicity in the same, the state government has been putting up a brave face while adopting the “all is well” mantra.
The Mining and Geology department has revealed that it is taking due steps to control the illegalities by registering over 200 cases of illegal transportation of coal.
However, the irony is that Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma has, time and again, denied any illegal transportation of coal in the state.
An official of the Mining and Geology department, while speaking to The Shillong Times on Saturday, maintained that the department was not allowing any illegal transportation of coal. The official asserted that directions have been issued to respective deputy commissioners, superintendents of police and DMR to take immediate action against any instances of illegality.
The official further pointed out that the state government has a monitoring team comprising of the chief secretary, DGP, Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Secretary of Mining and DMR, which meets once every month to review the action being taken against illegal coal transportation.
In addition, the department has strengthened its manpower and deputed patrolling teams in all the check gates to keep a tab on coal-laden trucks plying without challans, resulting in detection of over 200 cases of violations, the official stated.
Reacting to a query about the claims of Opposition Leader, Mukul Sangma that the amount of coal is much lesser than what has been estimated by the state government, the official said that as per section 21 of the MMDR Act, if there is any unclaimed coal, it is seized and on identification of the owner, an FIR is sent to the person. In case the owner is not traceable, the Court confiscates the illegally extracted unclaimed coal and it becomes the property of the state government.
“We issue auction notice to dispose of the confiscated coal in a transparent manner,” the official added.
Referring to the Supreme Court order issued on July 3, 2019 asking the Meghalaya Government to act as per section 21 of the MMDR Act, the official said, “We are following due procedures of the MMDR Act.”