In a major embarrassment to the MDA government which keeps on denying about presence of illegal coal mining in the State, the Meghalaya High Court has today filed a suo motu public interest litigation (PIL) on the matter and also sought an independent report from the Chief Secretary and the acting Director General of Police.
The division bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Wanlura Diengdoh passed the order based on the news report in The Shillong Times which appeared today with the heading “Mask of rat-hole mining falls in state.” The news report was filed by a correspondent of the newspaper.
In a hearing held today, the High Court observed that for several months it has been widely reported, inter alia, in the newspapers regarding the illegal coal mining in the State.
Stating that it is imperative that the matter be immediately investigated, the High Court directed Chief Secretary Rebecca V. Suchiang and the acting Director General of Police Idashisha Nongrang to visit the areas where illegal mining is going on and to submit an independent report on the matter at the next hearing on March 2.
Stating that the investigation should be without any political interference, the High Court warned that any political interference may compel the court to appoint a fact-finding committee or even put a special investigation team in place or take the assistance of some agency “so that the matter is appropriately and thoroughly investigated in accordance with law and the persons involved are brought to book”.
The High Court also said that both the Chief Secretary and the acting Director General of Police are free to take the assistance of the correspondent from The Shillong Times who visited the area and has described the entire scenario in great detail in the news report published today.
The court also asked Additional Advocate General B Bhattacharjee to immediately communicate this order to the appropriate personnel since “the matter requires immediate, serious attention.”
It may be noted that in the news report published in The Shillong Times today the correspondent gave a detailed description of how he was taken to Nengchigen village in the West Khasi Hills District bordering the South Garo Hills District where illegal coal mining was going on.
A photograph has also been published in the newspaper to highlight the “rat hole mining” that is being indulged in a widespread manner.
It also appears from the relevant article and other newspaper reports that a complaint has been lodged in such regard by the Nokma of Nengchigen village against certain persons, including the police, alleging widespread illegal mining of coal within the clan lands.
