The first ‘scientific mining’ coal block in Meghalaya was inaugurated today by Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma in Byndihati, East Jaintia Hills, delivering on the hopes of the restart of legal coal mining in a less environmentally damaging way.
The Saryngkham A coal mine was inaugurated by Sangma via video conferencing. On the ground, cabinet minister Kyrmen Shylla, Sutnga Saipung MLA Santa Mary Shylla, JHADC executive member Hambertus Nongtdu, EJH Deputy Commissioner Shivansh Awasthi, Superintendent of Police Giri Prasad, former Khliehriat MLA Justine Dkhar and others were in attendance.
Addressing the gathering, Sangma congratulated all concerned stakeholders including officials, mine owners, other mining lease applicants, the owner of this particular mining lease (Dapmain Shylla), who have all contributed in making scientific mining in the state a reality.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) banned the prevalent practice of rat-hole coal mining in 2014, which devastated the local economy in coal-rich areas, even though illegal mining continued in places.
The CM said that the past decade has been some “of the most difficult” years for those who had depended directly or indirectly on the coal industry.
He said that legal scientific mining was accorded top priority by his government when it came to power in 2018.
“The journey wasn’t so easy. The journey wasn’t very clear. In fact, it was like moving through uncharted territory, not knowing what challenge would come up in front of us while we moved forward,” he said. “What kept us going was to see that the difficulties that our people are going through, we must find a way to resolve this and bring back normalcy for our people and our citizens and that’s what really drove us.”
The Chief Minister also said that the process of ensuring that other applicants receive the same mining permissions is on.
“It is always complicated and difficult for the first one or two or three of them, because they are moving in uncharted territory, not knowing what challenges may suddenly crop up and delay the process but now that there has already been somebody who has moved and seen everything, it is now going to be easier for others who are behind now to move forward”, he said.
He also said that Meghalaya had many challenges, apart from the technological aspect, like different land holding systems, which made the process more complicated.
Meanwhile, the Sutnga Saipung MLA thanked the CM for leading the process in making scientific coal mining a reality.
