Coal miners can put in place mining plans

SHILLONG, APR 14: If the coal miners of Meghalaya waits for the Meghalaya government to put in place a mining plan as suggested by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and hope for lifting of the ban on coal mining in the state, then it might simply takes years. However if the coal mine owners-whose mines are close to each others- form a cooperative and hires the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) to make mining plans for their mines it will be much faster and, perhaps, they can resume mining of coals.

Submission of mining plans-as suggested by the NGT- by the Meghalaya government to the NGT is unlikely to happen early. The NGT imposed an interim ban on mining of coal in Meghalaya on April 17 last year but later it allowed transportation of already extracted coal sometime back.

The coal ban hit the state’s economy and had rendered many- who depended on coal mining directly and indirectly- jobless. The state government is going through financial crunch as it no longer gets revenue from coal.

A flicker of hope that the ban of coal might be lifted by the NGT appeared when the NGT directed the Meghalaya government to submit mining plans.

However if the coal mine owners are waiting for submission of mining plans by the state government to the NGT then they might have to wait for years as formulating a mining plans will require experts and it is time consuming.

A government insider said that putting in place mining plans is a complex and time consuming exercise. It is felt that it will be more plausible for a group of coal miners whose mines are close to each other to form a cooperative and hire experts form IBM- the only recognised body to put such plans in place- to formulate the plans and get the approval of the NGT for mining instead of waiting for years for the state government to get the mining plans in place.

As Meghalaya government doesn’t have experts to formulate the mining plans and have to take the assistance of the IBM experts, the submission of plans will take years.

Moreover it is learnt that making mining plans for the whole state will take years as the experts have to make separate mining plans for each mines which have different topography. Therefore if the ban on coal is to be lifted, the coal mine owners will have to take the initiatives by forming a cooperative and hire experts from the IMB to make the mining plans for their compact areas and get the approval for mining of coal. The mine owners can also split the cost of hiring the experts among themselves.- By Our Reporter