Shillong, Feb 22: A long-term alternative is the only real solution to coal mining, former civil servant Toki Blah has told Highland Post.
Speaking on the Thangsko illegal mine explosion from earlier this month, which claimed the lives of 33 miners, Blah said an operation of that kind and magnitude, where dozens of people can be underground to mine, is not a small operation and must have been known to the authorities.
“We already have a court order preventing rat-hole mining, but I strongly suspect that political patronage in high places in the government is the main cause that such rat-hole mining still continues,” he said. “When coal is mined, it has to be sold somewhere and, in a state where there are no railways, transportation of coal has to be by road and is very easy to check. You have state check posts, district council check posts, etc. How can trucks full of coal just pass like ghosts?”
In the wake of the explosion, the deadliest since the rat-hole ban came into force in 2014, the state government has constituted a judicial inquiry. Blah said this is a routine mechanism when disasters occur and are done by every government and this is not the first nor the last time.
“What I’m more concerned about is the impact of such mining activities on the environment, especially in a region like East Jaintia Hills (where Thangsko is located). Coal mining and limestone mining will turn the area into a desert where nothing will grow, water has been poisoned and you cannot drink it,” he said. “Livelihood is important, especially for people in rural areas that constitute more than 75 percent of Meghalaya’s population. It’s very important to give assurance of proper livelihood, but it is a lack of creative thinking that has forced these people to go into mining to earn their living without any alternative.”
Blah said there are many alternatives to coal and he failed to understand why livelihoods have to solely depend on mining. The only way forward is to provide people with a better alternative that works in the long-term.
