Forest and Environment Minister James Sangma today said all illegal coke factories in East Jaiñtia Hills have been shut down by the district administration.
“We have taken action against those which are operating illegally and they have been shut down,” Sangma told media persons.
It may be mentioned that the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had on December 9 issued notices to the State government on the illegal coke factories set up in Sutnga Elaka of East Jaiñtia Hills.
The NGT notice was issued to the State government, Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board (MSPCB), East Jaiñtia Hills Deputy Commissioner, State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) and Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC). They have been asked to reply within four weeks.
The NGT issued the notice on the petition filed by a resident of East Jaiñtia Hills, Pynbait Sutnga, who sought the tribunal’s intervention into the environmental pollution caused due to operation of coke plants in Sutnga Elaka.
Stating that several coke oven plants have been established and are operating in the East Jaiñtia Hills in violation of environmental norms causing air and water pollution leading to health hazard of local people, the petition also stated that some of these open coke plants were set up within 100-300 meters of human habitation.
Backing up his petition, the petitioner also submitted copy of the Inspection Report of the Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board (MSPCB) and the MSPCB Notification dated 23.12.2020 which lays down the norms for setting up of coke plants with installed production capacity of less than 25,000 tons per annum in the State.
As per the notification, for clusters, the coke oven units should be located within a distance of one kilometer from each other and the minimum distance from two clusters should be five kilometers.
The notification also mentioned that the distance of a coke plant from the main road should be 500 meters, the distance from major stream, river and lakes should be at least 100 meters, the distance from the outer limit of village habitation should be one kilometer, and the distance from important public places such as hospitals, schools, tourist spots should be one kilometer.
