The Meghalaya High Court today rapped the State government for its “callousness and criminal support to persons who indulged in rampant illegal coal mining”.
“The State has now announced with a lot of fanfare the imminent commencement of scientific coal mining. However, due to the callousness of the State and its criminal support to persons who indulged in rampant illegal coal mining, valuable revenue has been lost, several lives have been sacrificed in rat-hole mining and illegal transportation of coal has continued unabated, so much so that the court was pushed into seeking Central assistance to stop the illegal transportation of coal within the State,” the full bench of the High Court said.
The court also said that in another matter, it has been discovered that a single entity (Jai Maa Coal Private Limited) in various avatars has exported thousands of metric tonnes of coal through the Gasuapara Land Customs Station in South Garo Hills without anyone, whether from the State government or at the Gasuapara Land Customs Station, seeking to ascertain the source of such coal.
“Indeed, there is even an FIR filed by the sales tax authorities in Guwahati to the effect that the coal may have been of Meghalaya origin and may have been shown in the papers to have been transported from Guwahati or thereabouts back to Meghalaya for its export without such coal moving any place other than ultimately to Bangladesh,” the court said.
“These are matters of serious concern. Despite repeated orders of this court, the State has cared little to check the menace, though the State was always encouraged by the court to ensure that scientific coal mining was started so that the cottage industry of illegal mining of coal would be stopped,” the High Court added.
