Irked by the failure of the State government to stop illegal mining and transportation of coal, the Meghalaya High Court has today decided to seek deployment of Central armed police forces to stop the racket.
The full bench of the High Court while hearing a PIL on the matter, said that the State government has been afforded nearly a year to take appropriate measures but the measures adopted by the State “have fallen woefully short”.
According to the High Court, it is now necessary to call in the Central armed police forces to monitor and stop the illegal activities pertaining to coal mining that continues in the State.
The court also requested Dr. N Mozika, Deputy Solicitor General of India, who is present during the hearing, to take notice on behalf of the Central government and to inform the court at the next hearing on February 14 about the formalities for the immediate deployment of sufficient units of either the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) or the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) “to completely take over the policing of illegal coal mining activities including the transportation thereof from the State machinery”.
The High Court also said that the State government should bear the cost for such deployment of central forces “for its abject inefficiency”.
The court also said that the Superintendent of Police, East Jaintia Hills shall show cause as to why punishment for contempt, including detention in jail, should not be suffered by him for the flagrant violation of orders of the court to check the illegal menace of unscientific coal mining rampant all over the East Jaintia Hills and the illegal transportation thereof.
Further, the High Court asked the State government to file an affidavit at the next hearing regarding the revelations in the latest report of Justice B P Katakey.
It may be noted that the interim report filed by Justice Katakey on February 6 referred to several cases having been registered pertaining to illegal extraction of coal in the recent months.
The report stated that 31 cases of illegal transportation of coal have been registered in December 2022 and January 2023. However, even the rough estimates of the quantity of seized coal have not been indicated in any of these cases.
“For a start, if 31 cases of illegal transportation have come to light, there must have been several multiples more of illegal transportation that may either have been actively overlooked or may not have come to the notice of the appropriate personnel. Secondly, the failure to even indicate the approximate quantity of the seized coal leaves room for manipulation and there is no doubt that the local officials are involved in such manipulation,” the High Court said.
The report also referred to the steps taken by Justice Katakey on a newspaper report on January 10, 2023 that three mine workers had reportedly died inside a coal mine in Rymbai in East Jaintia Hills.
Justice Katakey’s latest interim report revealed that an FIR was lodged at Ladrymbai Police Outpost and a case was registered under Sections 188/304A/34 of the Penal Code read with Section 21(5) of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 following the publication of such report.
Three dead bodies which had been buried on January 10, 2023 were disinterred in terms of the order passed by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Khliehriat and sent for autopsy to the NEIGRIHMS. The autopsy reports are awaited.
In this connection, the High Court has directed the State government to furnish such autopsy reports when this matter is taken up at the next hearing.
