The Meghalaya High Court today said that apart from the dangerous form of rat-hole mining that is undertaken, particularly in the eastern part of Meghalaya, there are murmurs that the illegally mined coal in the State is smuggled out of the State and is returned for apparent export to Bangladesh on the basis of fabricated documents to suggest that the coal originated in some other State.
The court also said that there are credible reports that a substantial part of the illegally mined coal in the State is transported to other states, primarily on trucks bearing Nagaland license plates and with papers showing the coal to have been mined in some other North-Eastern State.
“A policy has been notified for mining of coal in the State on March 5, 2021 and several applications have been received. However, no license has yet been issued for any mining thus far. Yet, rampant illegal mining of coal continues despite orders of this court dating back, probably, to March of this year. The NGT and Supreme Court orders have been in place from 2016 or earlier,” the High Court said.
“Indeed, it may not be any coincidence that the entire stretch of the national highway in the Goalpara district of Assam between Dudhnoi and Krishnai is littered with coal dumps on either side of the road replacing agricultural fields. It is of significance that there are at least three roads between Dudhnoi and Krishnai that lead to Meghalaya, two of them to the North Garo Hills District and the third being a road via Paikan that goes to Tura,” the court said.
