Express News Service
NEW DELHI: A single-member committee headed by Justice Brojendra Katakey (retired), appointed by the High Court, has found unabated illegal rat-hole coal mining and its illegal transportation in Meghalaya. The Meghalaya High Court has today accepted the committee’s hard-hitting 18th report and scheduled a hearing on November 30 to take future courses of action.
Rat hole mining involves digging very small tunnels, usually 3-4 feet diameter in which especially children enter to extract coal. The National Green Tribunal had banned Rat hole mining in 2014 on the grounds that unscientific mining can cause human fatalities.
However, the Meghalaya government has challenged the NGT ban in the Supreme Court. There is no other way of extracting coal from the hills as the available coal seam is too thin to mine with big machines, it said.
Justice Katakey visited East Jaintia and West Khasi districts on November 7. The committee found illegal coal mining, transportation and setting up of a weighbridge. In the East Jaintia district, the committee found freshly mined coals dumped beside the national highway near Don Bosco College, and also a weighbridge nearby.
The committee said in its report that such an amount of coal was neither part of previous inventories nor part of seized coal, amply establishing rampant illegal mining. Besides the committee also found the disappearance of 18 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) coal out of the total seized 32 LMT from the government record.“No government officials ready to explain logically about missing coals,” says a senior official close to the development.
On April 19, 2022, the High Court had constituted the Katakey committee on Suo Motu public interest litigation petition to look after the implementation of the court’s directions to prohibit mining and suggest measures. The committee has submitted 17 interim reports apart from a preliminary report on rat hole mining.
“The Katakey committee report is quite alarming establishing continuation of illegal rat hole mining,” said Agnes Kharshiing, Meghalaya-based Right To Information activist.
The unabated rat hole mining also causes environmental damage. Many rivulet’s water turned acidic in hills with high concentrations of sulphate, iron toxic heavy metals, etc., heavy transportation vehicles and roadside dumping of coals pollute air, water and soil.
The Supreme Court in its one order directed to implementation of Meghalaya Minerals (prevention of illegal mining, storage and transportation) rules. But it failed to curb the rat hole mining.
Recently, the High Court had also directed the deployment of CISF to stop rat hole mining which the centre objected to in the Supreme Court, early this year. Follow channel on WhatsApp
NEW DELHI: A single-member committee headed by Justice Brojendra Katakey (retired), appointed by the High Court, has found unabated illegal rat-hole coal mining and its illegal transportation in Meghalaya. The Meghalaya High Court has today accepted the committee’s hard-hitting 18th report and scheduled a hearing on November 30 to take future courses of action.
Rat hole mining involves digging very small tunnels, usually 3-4 feet diameter in which especially children enter to extract coal. The National Green Tribunal had banned Rat hole mining in 2014 on the grounds that unscientific mining can cause human fatalities.
However, the Meghalaya government has challenged the NGT ban in the Supreme Court. There is no other way of extracting coal from the hills as the available coal seam is too thin to mine with big machines, it said.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });
Justice Katakey visited East Jaintia and West Khasi districts on November 7. The committee found illegal coal mining, transportation and setting up of a weighbridge. In the East Jaintia district, the committee found freshly mined coals dumped beside the national highway near Don Bosco College, and also a weighbridge nearby.
The committee said in its report that such an amount of coal was neither part of previous inventories nor part of seized coal, amply establishing rampant illegal mining. Besides the committee also found the disappearance of 18 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) coal out of the total seized 32 LMT from the government record.
“No government officials ready to explain logically about missing coals,” says a senior official close to the development.
On April 19, 2022, the High Court had constituted the Katakey committee on Suo Motu public interest litigation petition to look after the implementation of the court’s directions to prohibit mining and suggest measures. The committee has submitted 17 interim reports apart from a preliminary report on rat hole mining.
“The Katakey committee report is quite alarming establishing continuation of illegal rat hole mining,” said Agnes Kharshiing, Meghalaya-based Right To Information activist.
The unabated rat hole mining also causes environmental damage. Many rivulet’s water turned acidic in hills with high concentrations of sulphate, iron toxic heavy metals, etc., heavy transportation vehicles and roadside dumping of coals pollute air, water and soil.
The Supreme Court in its one order directed to implementation of Meghalaya Minerals (prevention of illegal mining, storage and transportation) rules. But it failed to curb the rat hole mining.
Recently, the High Court had also directed the deployment of CISF to stop rat hole mining which the centre objected to in the Supreme Court, early this year. Follow channel on WhatsApp
