SHILLONG, FEB 7: The Meghalaya High Court on Tuesday said it is necessary to call in the central armed police forces (CAPF) to monitor and stop the illegal mining and transportation of coal in the state.
The court has also directed the East Jaintia Hills Superintendent of Police to show cause why punishment for contempt, including detention in jail, should not be suffered by him for the flagrant violation of orders of this Court.
“In the current scenario and considering that the State has been afforded nearly a year to take appropriate measures and the measures adopted by the State have fallen woefully short, it is necessary to call in the Central Armed Police Forces to monitor and stop the illegal activities pertaining to coal mining that continues in the State,” the Division Bench said in its order after hearing a PIL on the matter.
“ Dr. Mozika, learned Deputy-Solicitor General of India, who is present in Court, is requested to take notice on behalf of the Union and to inform this Court, when the matter appears a week hence as to the formalities for the immediate deployment of sufficient units of either the Central Industrial Security Force or the Central Reserve Police Force to completely take over the policing of illegal coal mining activities including the transportation thereof from the State machinery; obviously, at a cost that the State will have to bear for its abject inefficiency,” it said.
The Court said that the large-scale unscientific mining of coal in the State may lead to disastrous consequences. It appears that coal and limestone are found in abundance in this State. Both minerals have been exploited in an unscientific manner.
It said that lack of education and lack of alternative opportunities may have driven many in the State to exploit primary resources as timber and minerals and families may have been left in the lurch upon the unregulated and unscientific industry in either case being arrested.
The kind of coal extraction that the locals here undertake is mainly by rat-hole mining where one or more persons dig a hole with barely enough space to crawl in and chip away the coal from the rockface to physically carry it out.
Apart from the immediate risk of the roof of the hole caving in, such activity leaves gaping holes underground, ready to buckle in if there were to be an earthquake. Coupled with this is the presence of limestone underground or on rocksides.
Stating that unregulated extraction of limestone leaves gaps and holes close to the surface, the Court said, “With the abundance of rain in this region and limestone being prone to water erosion, there is a tragedy waiting to happen in the aftermath of the unscientific extraction of such coal and limestone, even as the State plays the proverbial fiddle.”
“Without intending to sound apocalyptic or seeking to toll the knell of an imminent doomsday, it takes no rocket science to realise that the recipe is ripe for disaster. The pot is on the boil and it is brewing a calamitous broth. Yet the lure of a quick buck prompts the sentinel to look the other way,” it added.
The Court has also taken cognizance on a news report that three mine workers had died inside a coal mine in Rymbai in East Jaintia Hills.
The Chief Secretary was requested to submit a report as to the veracity of the newspaper report.
Justice Katakey’s latest interim report revealed that an FIR was lodged at Ladrymbai Outpost of the Khliehriat police station and a case was registered under Sections 188/304A/34 of the Penal Code read with Section 21(5) of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 following the publication of such report.
Three dead bodies which had been buried on January 10, 2023 were disinterred in terms of the order passed by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Khliehriat and sent for autopsy to the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences.
The autopsy reports are awaited. Doubtless, the State will furnish such autopsy reports when this matter is taken up next.
The interim report filed by Justice Katakey referred to several cases having been registered pertaining to illegal extraction of coal in the recent months.
As to illegal transportation of coal, 31 cases have been registered in December, 2022 and January, 2023.
Surprisingly, even the rough estimates of the quantity of seized coal has not been indicated in any case.
For a start, if 31 cases of illegal transportation have come to light, there must have been several multiples more of illegal transportation that may either have been actively overlooked or may not have come to the notice of the appropriate personnel.
Secondly, the failure to even indicate the approximate quantity of the seized coal leaves room for manipulation and there is no doubt that the local officials are involved in such manipulation.
In recent petitions filed in this Court, there are complaints of continuous illegal coal mining and illegal transportation thereof in the South Garo Hills and Gasuapara appears to be at the centre of such illegal activities in that region just as Rymbai appears to be the heart of the illegal coal mining activity in the Khasi-Jaintia hills.
The Court has directed that the autopsy reports should be available in Court when the matter appears next along with the indication of the exact quantities of coal seized in respect of each of the 31 cases registered pertaining to illegal transportation that find mention in Justice Katakey’s latest report.
It said that the State’s report filed on February 6, 2023 does not, for obvious reasons, deal with the matter pertaining to illegal transportation or any checks that may have been placed in such regard. It will be open to the State to rectify such aspects of the matter by the time the matter is taken up next.
Meanwhile, the Court has directed the the Superintendent of Police, East Jaintia Hills to show cause why punishment for contempt, including detention in jail, should not be suffered by him for the flagrant violation of orders of this Court to check the illegal menace of unscientific coal mining rampant all over the East Jaintia Hills and the illegal transportation thereof.
The next hearing on the matter will be held on February 14.
By Our Reporter
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