SHILLONG: The Achik Indigenous Justice Initiative Forum (AIJIF) has decried the blanket ban on rat-hole coal mining in Meghalaya and stated that coal mining was the major economic activity in Meghalaya. Coal mining commenced in Meghalaya about 200 years ago when the first mines were set up in the region around the town of Cherrapunjee or Sohra, AIJIF said.
AIJIF chief co-coordinator George N. Sangma said that the colonial records pinpoint 1840 as the year coal mining operations commenced in the Khasi Hills, as a commercial enterprise led by Captain Lister, an agent of the British East India Company.
He said that since the earliest days of coal mining activity in the region, local miners have used a traditional mining method known as rat hole mining.
In an effort to empower tribal communities in Northeast India, the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution was enacted, which guarantees that Meghalaya’s indigenous communities living within the scheduled areas are recognized as the rightful owners of the natural resources falling within those areas.
According to AIJIF, this debate over ownership rights of the land has been raging on between the indigenous population of the State and the State Government since 1988 when a representative of Meghalaya’s tribunal community argued in Parliament that the State had no jurisdiction over the natural resources and land within the scheduled territory boundaries.
