The order of the Meghalaya High should not be read as just another status update. It is an indictment. After four years of Suo Motu monitoring, the Court has been forced to say what many in the coal belt have long whispered that the State’s response is “knee-jerk”, accountability is “only on paper”, and the very coal the State swore existed has simply vanished.
In 2019, the State declared under oath before the Supreme Court that 32,56,715 MT of coal was physically available. A drone survey later found only 14,10,710 MT. Where did 18,46,004 MT or 56.7% of the declared stock go? The State’s explanation is more damning than the deficit itself. It admits that for years, policy was built on fiction. This fiction continues.
Physical verification of CIL depots shows a shortfall of 28,369 MT. Of 37,449 MT of illegal coal found missing outside depots, FIRs have been filed for only 4,141 MT. The rest, 33,307 MT, is unaccounted for, without a case. When coal goes missing in South West Khasi Hills, the State files an FIR claiming it was smuggled to Bangladesh in gunny bags. It is an explanation that raises more questions than it answers about border surveillance and official complicity.
The Court ordered all pithead coal shifted to depots by February 29, 2024. That was done by June 2024, but the auction system that followed has collapsed. In November 2023, of 5.88 lakh MT auctioned, challans were issued for only 1.09 lakh MT. On April 28, 2026, 3,45,051 MT was sold, but payment came for only 33,503 MT – a staggering 3.11 lakh MT default. The State continues to pay rent for empty depots on private land – Depot 1 and 5 in East Jaintia Hills and Depot 8 in West Khasi Hills are non-functional since inception but still bleeding the exchequer. Rs 33.85 lakh of demurrage recovered out of Rs 45.13 lakh due is touted as action; it is tokenism.
The Katakey Committee counts over 22,000 open, water-filled pits, 26,000 rat-hole openings in East Jaintia Hills alone. It calls their existence a violation of Article 21. And rightly so. On February 5, 2026, 34 miners died in the Mynsngat-Thangsko blast. On May 9, a decomposed body was pulled from a 50-foot abandoned pit at Mulait Bri Sumer. The State’s response? Directives to Dollois and Nokmas to fence pits, and pilot reclamation DPRs for 10 hectares in Sutnga and 40 hectares in Arenggitim that have been jammed before the NGT for months. Zero mines closed in two years.
The environmental betrayal is financial. Rs 428 crore meant for restoration sits idle. Rs 100 crore CPCB fund – only Rs 17.52 crore released. Rs 365.84 crore MEPRF – only Rs 6.06 crore released. The reason cited is almost farcical. DCs submit Rs 36.74 crore worth of projects without a single Detailed Project Report. The State blames the NGT Oversight Committee for not releasing funds, after failing to send it auditable proposals. A High-Level Monitoring Committee notified on July 23, 2026 will not solve what is essentially administrative apathy.
And then there is laundering. 62 coke oven plants, only 29 with valid Consent to Operate. Five in East Jaintia Hills are still not demolished. In South West Khasi Hills, the administration counts 10 plants, the Pollution Board has given consent to 15 – the gap itself is an invitation to launder illegal coal.
Finally, the question of who is responsible. Illegal mining on private land cannot happen without tacit official consent.
The Chief Minister will have to shoulder responsibility for the prevailing lawlessness in the coal sector under his watch. The Ministers have sat and watched the illegal trade of coal eat up the justice and law and order system in the state, not to speak of the leaking revenue. The public can only watch as this situation drags on. The judiciary has been reading the riot act and now it is time for the judges to wield their full authority and make the recalcitrant government bow to the laws of the land.
