Shillong, Dec 8: Cabinet Minister Kyrmen Shylla has claimed that the delay in the auctioning process has led to already extracted coal lying in different locations of East Jaintia Hills District and this is being misconstrued as illegal coal.
The UDP representative from Khliehriat was responding to a question on Friday on the orders passed by the High Court of Meghalaya regarding the ongoing illegal coal mining in the district.
Shylla said, “The illegal coal mining mentioned by the Court, I don’t know exactly what is it about but all I know is that the coal lying all over East Jaintia Hill, as per my knowledge is the coa which needs to be auctioned by CIL. But the auction process was a little bit delayed and the coal is lying pending for auction). Maybe because of that the high court mentioned that illegal mining is going on.”
“Therefore, until and unless we complete auctioning of especially 32 lakh metric tons I feel it is very difficult to say illegal coal mining is going on. After we finish that, then if new coal is coming up then I believe may be is correct to mention that this illegal coal mining is going on but as of now how can we identify(illegal coal when the 32 lakh metric tons is not over yet and is still lying pending for auctioning,” he said.
“I am not against the court but it is just that I believe the authority who should complete this process of auction should complete it as soon as possible so that if new coal comes we can identify, then we realise and we know this is new coal and it might be illegal coal mining,” he added.
When asked whether scientific mining will put an end to such illegalities, Kyrmen said that the chief minister Conrad K Sangma is trying his best to address the issue.
“Anything when we introduce in our state or we try to implement, it does take time but we still have faith in our leader that he will give justice and do the best he can so that our people get the benefit out of it because nobody I believe wants to do anything illegal or do anything against the law or government, they would like to work as per law so that things will move exactly how it need to be but not against the law or not against the government,” he said.
