Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong today continued to toe the government line and deny that there was illegal transportation of coal in Meghalaya.
Yesterday the youth wing of the Jaiñtia Coal Miners and Dealers Association in a letter to Chief Secretary MS Rao alleged that challans meant for the transportation of recently-auctioned coal from East Jaiñtia Hills are being resold on the black market.
However, Tynsong did not explicitly contradict this when he tackled the charge by saying, “The challans are issued on the basis of indicated quantity of coal and, after due process is complete, the DMR (Directorate of Mineral Resources) will issue challans and no extra challans are issued.”
On the allegation of the association that there has to be some connivance between those in power and illegal transporters of coal, Tynsong again did not specifically deny the charge when he said, “There are nine checkpoints and it is not easy to pass from one checkpoint to another.”
He did, though, stand by the government’s claim that the only coal being moved out of coal dumps is that that has already been auctioned off according to the direction of the courts.