The committee headed by Justice B P Katakey has today finalised a revised comprehensive plan for the transportation and auction of extracted coal and the same will be notified by the State government soon.
Justice Katakey today held a meeting with several senior government officials where it was decided to ascertain the exact quantity of extracted coal in the State before the NGT ban was imposed in 2014.
Speaking to media persons, Justice Katakey said, “The process to ascertain the quantity of coal extracted before the NGT ban in two districts – South West Khasi Hills and South West Garo Hills is almost completed.”
According to him, the quantity of coal in South West Khasi Hills is 3.19 lakh metric tons (MT) and out of that the committee has ascertained 3.08 lakh MT and is yet to do reassessment in respect of 6,000 MT. The figure is also the same for South West Garo Hills.
In East Jaiñtia Hills which is the major coal producing district of the State, almost 50 per cent of extracted coal has been assessed.
The Deputy Commissioner of East Jaiñtia Hills has assured that assessment of the remaining quantity of coal would be completed by October 14.
“The State government mentioned that the quantity of extracted coal is more than 32 lakh metric tons, but I should know the facts before formulating any policy on transportation as well as auction of the coal. While formulating the policy we must know what is the quantity of coal to be transported from one place to another and how much time it will require and thereafter how much time will it take to auction it,” Justice Katakey said.
He also mentioned that the few salient features of the formulated plan is how the transportation of coal is to be carried out, how the challan will be prepared and what features will be there in the challan.
Due to various allegations of reuse of challan, the committee has formulated a policy to cancel the challan once utilised.
Further, the contents of challan like name of driver will also be there. Every truck will have to install a GPS system so that truck can be tracked.
According to Justice Katakey, every truck must move through a designated route till the border except those carrying coal that is permitted to be sold within the State for domestic requirement.
“Apart from registration of a vehicle, the name of the owner and driver, the route by which truck will go has to be mentioned in the challan,” Justice Katakey said.
It may be mentioned that Justice Katakey was appointed by the full bench of Meghalaya High Court to recommend to the State government the measures for assessment, auction and transportation of extracted coal and also the steps taken to comply with the orders of the Supreme Court as well as National Green Tribunal on the matter.
The Supreme Court on July 3, 2019 had allowed coal mining in the State subject to compliance with the provisions of Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 and Mineral Concession Rules, 1960 etc.
