Tura, May 3: Social activist from Shillong Kingstone Bolwari has objected to the granting of permission to Jai Maa Coal Private Limited, to lift coal supposedly dumped at Gasuapara and transport the same to Bangladesh and on Tuesday urged the Chief Secretary to revoke the order.
In his complaint to the Chief Secretary, Kingstone claimed that there is no extracted coal dumped at the site but that the order was issued to facilitate fresh and illegal mining of the mineral from South Garo Hills.
According to Kingstone, the order granting permission to M/S Jai Maa Coal Pvt. Ltd to transport the said coal was issued by the Under Secretary to the Government of Meghalaya on April 28 following which, an impugned order was issued by the Deputy Commissioner on April 29 pertaining to the transportation of dumped coal lying at Gasuapara area to neighbouring Bangladesh.
Kingstone alleged that while the government claims that the permission has been given to allow exporters to bring coal from outside to the Gasuapara Land Custom Station to be transported to Bangladesh, the reality was that the Jai Maa Coal Pvt Ltd was transporting coal freshly mined from South Garo Hills.
“There is no stranded coal lying at Gasuapara as claimed. Therefore giving permission to transport the mineral to Bangladesh will give scope to transport illegal and freshly mined coal from the district,” Kingstone said.
Kingstone added that there was no system in place for checking the number of trucks and quantity of coal that is being transported from outside the state. With no record of the daily number of trucks transporting coal and that of the total quantity of coal coming from outside, Kingstone cautioned that the same would encourage illegal mining in the district leading to revenue loss to the government.
