Some 15 to 18 individuals have been issued with coal prospecting licences, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma informed today.
Even more have applied for the licence, which is necessary to restart legal, scientific coal mining in Meghalaya.
Sangma added that some of the licensees have submitted their mining plans. Following approval for these, scientific mining will then begin.
Based on the Supreme Court ruling in July 2019, the Meghalaya government has taken all steps and is hopeful that mining gets going again, the CM said, though he added that “we are keeping our fingers crossed as the process is very complicated. So, we’ll wait and watch but the process is underway.”
