SHILLONG, March 9: Prior to the resumption of the coal mining in state, more people will come for prospecting operations. Informing this, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Wednesday said that following the prospecting operations, the next phase will be to apply for clearances of mining plan, which will be done by Indian Bureau of Mining.
“Once that is clear, they will be able to start mining and we expect things will move faster and we will see that things will improve,” the chief minister said.
It may be mentioned that central government had allowed Meghalaya to conduct prospecting operations, following which the government cleared the Standard Operating Procedure for obtaining prospecting licenses and mining leases.
The Supreme Court had in July 2019 lifted the NGT ban.
The Apex court had said in its order that in Meghalaya, the local tribal people are the owners of their land and also the minerals beneath.