Shillong, Sep 1: The Meghalaya High Court on Tuesday said that coal is vanishing, over Rs 428 crore in environmental funds remain blocked, not a single rat-hole mine has been closed, and accountability exists only on paper.
The division bench of Justices Hamarsan Singh Thangkhiew and Wanlura Diengdoh slammed the state and said its responses are “knee-jerk” while illegal coal mining in the state is “revolving around certain issues which continue to remain unresolved.”
The court said the state has left critical gaps unaddressed as district action plans “completely lack any formal mechanism to hold specific officers personally liable.”
The court took note of the state’s status report covering the 38th and 39th interim reports and Justice BP Katakey (Retd.) Committee’s 40th interim report.
Of the 32.56 lakh MT coal declared before the Supreme Court in 2019, the court said a drone survey found only 14.10 lakh MT, leaving 18.46 lakh MT missing, while depot verification showed another shortfall of 28,369 MT.
It noted that of 3.45 lakh MT sold in the April 2026 auction, payment was received for only 33,503 MT, leaving 3.11 lakh MT unpaid and unevacuated.
The court also noted that over Rs 428 crore in environmental restoration funds remain idle, with only Rs 17.52 crore from the Rs 100 crore CPCB fund and Rs 6.06 crore from the Rs 365.84 crore MEPRF released.
Of the over 22,000 open rat-hole pits not a single pit has been closed despite two years of directions, the court said.
It also took note of the Byndihati fatal accident that killed a woman on March 4 involving truck ML-11-A-1473 carrying 34.950 MT to Star Cement. The court said records showing 2,93,569 MT imported via 8,174 trucks is an absolute bypass of the SOP, 2024.
