Shillong, Feb 21: The opposition Congress on Monday reiterated its demand for an independent probe into the alleged illegal coal trade in the state ,while the VPP chief Ardent Basaiawmoit has pointed out that the government is indulging in illegalities without any feeling of guilt.
“It is in the mind of the Congress to see that a central inquiry team is instituted into the coal racket,” Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) working president Pynshngain N Syiem told reporters on Monday after welcoming advocate, Erwin Starting to the party fold.
In a separate statement, Basaiawmoit said people including those who are at the helm of affairs have become millionaires from the alleged illegal coal trade in the state.
He alleged that the NPP-led MDA government is trying to find ways and means to legalise the transportation of coal, extracted illegally. Basaiawmoit said that is why the state government is now coming up with a notification to allow the transportation of coal, from different states and even outside the country to Bangladesh via Meghalaya.
PN Syiem said it is sad that the state is losing revenue due to the illegal coal trade.
He also flayed the state government for its continued denial mode on the matter.
“To give a statement that there is no evidence is very wrong and incorrect. When two persons have died in the mining area in West Khasi Hills District, I think that is already hard evidence,” he added
Airing the same views, Sutnga, who expressed that he had joined the Congress with a spirit of service, has demanded that the MDA government come clean on the alleged illegal coal trade.
“I challenge the MDA government, if you are really serious and you have no hand in this and you want to end this allegation that you had given a verbal order, ask the CBI to come in,” he said.
He was pointing out to the reports on the arrest of a coal trader and four others in Assam for tax evasion and the allegation that the state mining department is allowing illegal coal trade based on verbal orders.
