Shillong, Feb 6: The Hynñiewtrep Integrated Territorial Organisation (HITO) and Hynñiewtrep Youths’ Council (HYC) have separately insisted that the citizenship of the victims of yesterday’s Thangsko coal mine disaster be verified before compensation is paid.
The central and Meghalaya governments have already announced ex-gratia compensation to the injured and relatives of the deceased. The government of Assam has also made a similar announcement for victims from that state.
In a letter to the Meghalaya Governor, HITO also raised concerns over the citizenship status of the deceased, suspecting that many may be Bangladeshi nationals. HITO has demanded that citizenship verification be conducted before any compensation is provided.
This was also the subject of an HYC press release. This pressure group said that ex-gratia compensation should not be used to “reward or indirectly legitimise” illegal behaviour. Unlike HITO, the HYC did not criticise the authorities for allowing illegal mining to continue in the state.
HITO blamed the incident on “sustained political protection of illegal coal mining” and accused successive governments of allowing illegal coal mining to continue despite judicial prohibitions and public assurances.
The organisation claims that the true responsibility lies with the political leadership that, it said, has normalised illegality and converted governance failure into a business model.
The organisation has demanded an investigation by a central agency, such as the CBI and has sought central oversight and monitoring of illegal mining zones in East Jaintia Hills.
