The Meghalaya High Court has directed the State government to find out the names and details of alleged or perceived kingpins involved in illegal coal mining and coke plants and seek the assistance of the Assam police to bring them to book.
“If the State is serious in dealing with the issue, it is possible for the State police to obtain the assistance and cooperation of the Assam police to launch a combined operation not only to arrest the illegality but also to ensure that the exploitation of the small miners in the State cannot be continued by operators functioning from elsewhere,” the full bench of the High Court said today while hearing a suo motu PIL on the matter.
During the hearing, Advocate-General Amit Kumar who appeared on behalf of the State government told the High Court that effective steps have now been initiated to demolish the illegally-established or the illegally-operating coke plants.
Kumar also informed the court that effective steps are now being taken for checking the transportation of the illegally-mined coal and ensuring that false documentation cannot be created for illegally-mined coal in the State to be passed off as coal originating elsewhere.
“Repeated orders have been passed in matters pertaining to illegal mining of coal, the transportation of such illegally-mined coal and the operation of illegal coke plants in the State for the last 15 months or so. However, it appears that the State may have woken up from its slumber and may have been goaded into action by the recent orders. At the end of the day, the purpose for instituting the suo motu proceedings was to ensure that the State acted in accordance with the orders of the Supreme Court upholding the prohibition of mining of coal in the State other than by the scientific process in accordance with the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957,” the High Court said.
On the stand of the State government that the sudden stoppage of the coal-mining operations has led to a lot of people losing their livelihoods and, as such, people were forced to continue with it despite the coal mining ban, the High Court said it was for the State government to take appropriate steps to provide alternative sources of livelihood to its people, “just as it was the State’s obligation under the Constitution to ensure that orders passed by the Supreme Court that had attained finality were carried out without any breach”.
The High Court also asked the State government to encourage cooperative bodies to be formed by small miners so that collectively they can afford to obtain the requisite permission for scientific mining. The court also said that the State government can guide such cooperative bodies to ensure that scientific mining is conducted by them by adhering to all statutory and environmental concerns and parameters.
“As of now, since it appears that the State is dealing with the illegal operation of coke plants in right earnest or so it is submitted, no immediate order is passed and all matters, including the present one pertaining to illegal mining of coal, the transportation of such illegally-mined coal and the operation of illegal coke plants will stand over for three weeks,” the High Court said while listing the matter for hearing on August 8.
