Daily wage labourers work in a coal depot in Khliehriat city in Jaintia Hills District about 64kms from Shillong, Meghalaya. File picture for illustration.
| Photo Credit: Ritu Raj Konwar
GUWAHATI
Coal mining in Meghalaya, banned since April 2014, is probably going to be resumed legally by July.
At an election rally on May 1, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Ok. Sangma stated the Centre had accepted mining leases for 4 individuals, thus paving the best way for scientific mining in the State.
An April 24 letter from the Ministry of Coal to the Secretary of Meghalaya’s Mining and Geology division stated mining leases had been accepted for Nehlang Lyngdoh, Maksing Sibren Nongbri, Thomas Nongtdu, and Wenni Diengngan in the Khliehriat, Kalagaw, Byndihati and Nongstoin coal blocks.
“The National People’s Party-led government has been working tirelessly to open up mining in our State. We filed a case in 2019 after which the Supreme Court lifted the ban on mining by the National Green Tribunal (NGT),” Mr. Sangma stated throughout his get together’s rally in the State’s Sohiong constituency.
The election to the Sohiong Assembly seat was postponed after the dying of the United Democratic Party candidate, H.D.R. Lyngdoh forward of the February 27 polls.
Six candidates, together with the NPP’s Samlin Malngiang are in the fray for the election on May 10.
“Our government is now processing the papers for scientific mining to start within 60 days,” the Chief Minister stated.
Despite the ban on rat-hole coal mining, the fossil gas has been extracted and transported illegally for years in Meghalaya.
More than a fortnight in the past, the High Court of Meghalaya declined to exonerate the State authorities from complicity in the export of illegally mined coal to the adjoining Bangladesh.
“Our government is now processing the papers for scientific mining to start within 60 days”Conrad Ok. SangmaMeghalaya Chief Minister
