Shillong, Sep 1: Coal mining continues lawlessly and now illegal coal barons have started digging in fresh unmined green fields in Sakhain village in East Jaintia Hills district.
Sakhain is a few kilometres from Sutnga, a hub of mining and near Tangsko, where a major illegal mining accident killed 18 labourers in a dynamite explosion.
Videos shared with the Highland Post shows labourers digging fresh box cutting pits to reach the thin coal seams underground. The workmen seem to be men brought from outside the state.
According to local sources, the location shown in the video and photographs is Sakhain near Tangsko.
Locals said that mining has started again in Tangsko. The evidence is that hundreds of dumpers make runs from the Sakhain-Tangsko region to the coke factories and to the cement factories.
It is learnt that after the Tangsko mining death incident the coke factories had closed due to lack of coal. But now with the illegal coal mines opening up again the coke factories are back in business.
The Meghalaya High Court appointed retired Judge BP Katakey Committee to regulate and monitor illegal coal mining in the state had last June given the state 15 days to ensure that “not an ounce of illegal coal” is transported and to close down illegal mining still going on.
Katakey had warned that top officials including the Chief Secretary and Director-General of Police, face direct accountability.
But, despite all this, in total disregard of the laws of the land, coal barons are digging fresh lands and blithely mining away, said local sources.
