Shillong, May 15: The Jaintia Coal Owners, Miners, Suppliers & Workers Association (JCOMSWA) has submitted a passionate appeal to Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, urging his government to work with the district councils and other bodies to convince the central government to open up the possibility of more coal mining in the state.
Rat-hole coal mining was banned by the National Green Tribunal in 2014, hitting the pockets of coal barons and those lower down the scale, even as critics of the government have alleged that illegal mining remains rampant. So-called scientific mining is supposed to get the industry going again but the prerequisites put in place mean that small landowners will be unable to benefit.
In its memorandum to Sangma, JCOMSWA, which was founded only this year, poured out a list of arguments on how directly and indirectly important coal mining was to the economy of Jaintia Hills and how the ordinary people have suffered since the 2014 ban.
However, it did accept that there was grave environmental degradation during the era of rat-hole mining (which was the primary reason that the NGT banned the practice) and argued that this should not be allowed to happen again.
It also accepted that children risked their lives in the mines – rat-hole mines have such narrow shafts that children were often the only ones who could fit inside them. Unknown numbers of miners died underground due to poor safety and accidents. The exact number will never be known as so much of the industry was hidden away. However, JCOMSWA tried to argue that children are still at risk now because of illegal mining operations. It speciously claimed that “When mining was at least partly in the open, there was some possibility of monitoring and accountability. In the shadows of illegality, there is none.”
The body concluded with a hope that the CM would do his utmost to help Jaintia Hills unlock its coal wealth in a sustainable and safe manner.
