Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma today once again promised that auctions of already extracted coal will begin shortly.
Sangma said this during Question Hour in the Assembly wherein he stated that, according to the Supreme Court ruling in 2019, all extracted coal in Meghalaya must be taken over by Coal India Ltd for disposal and auction.
The government claims that there is more than 32 lakh tonnes of extracted coal in the state, though leader of the opposition Dr Mukul Sangma publicly questioned these amounts.
“The auction process has commenced and the first auction will be conducted shortly,” Conrad told the house.
There are 11 designated depots that have been identified to store the coal in East Jaiñtia Hills, South Garo Hills, South West Khasi Hills and West Khasi Hills. Work has been completed on six of these depots.
54,000 tonnes of extracted coal out of the 32 lakh tonne total, is in East Jaiñtia Hills and a further 9,000 tonnes in South Garo Hills, the CM informed.
The National Green Tribunal has set a base price for the coal at Rs 4,850 per tonne. However much the coal eventually sells for, 10 percent of the proceeds will go to Coal India, Sangma said.
