The State government today claimed that the final stage of the scientific coal mining plan is being vetted and in a matter of weeks or a month, mining will start legally.
Informing this today, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said that four persons have obtained mining permission from the Centre and their mining plans are awaiting approval.
“So, we expect the mining plans to get a final clearance. The final stage of the mining plan which was to be submitted is being vetted and in a matter of weeks or a month or so we will see this happening on the ground,” Sangma said, adding that the process is now at a very advanced stage.
Sangma also mentioned that few pressure groups are asking the government to review and reduce the required area of the mining plan from 100 hectares to a considerable size.
“We were fighting in the Supreme Court against the NGT ban and then discussing it with the Government of India. All this matters because for us we wanted the process to start and that is what is important to us and when the discussions took place there were different factors that were put in such as area, technology etc,” he said.
“So, while the negotiations were going on, the issue of the area came up. The Government of India was very particular that the number should not go down and so we felt in the larger interest of at least setting the ball rolling and starting the whole thing for mining. Let us not stick to the issue of 100 hectares as of now. Let it start and once things start, in the next stage we can come and discuss the reduction of the area as the Government of India was not comfortable at that time to reduce that,’ he added.
He added, “It was with that logic in the interest of making sure that mining started we went ahead with that and I am happy it has worked and we are at the final stage of getting the mining plan approved and mining will start”.
Informing that the State government had a lot of difficulties in reaching to a conclusion as in Meghalaya the land holding system is different, Sangma said, “In other areas, the government owns the land and the mines and they lease it out to private parties. Here, the private party owns the land and the government is acting as the agency to lease it out again to another individual to mine it. So the government has to change the rules based on Meghalaya land holding system and that is where the complications came out.”
Stating that the rules that are there for the rest of the country will not fully apply in Meghalaya because of the land holding system, Sangma however said, “We are now in a stage where we have overcome that and that is what took a lot of time. But as I said, all the hard work has given us positive results and I hope even this 100 hectare issue will be resolved.”
