SHILLONG, APR 21: Meghalaya Commercial Truck Owners and Operators Association MCTOOA has filed a petition seeking for ‘revoking’ the recent order issued by the NGT directing coal miners to also pay ‘environmental-fund’ while transporting the extracted coal from Meghalaya.
The petition was filed by the MCTOOA president Augustine Shanpru on April 6.
“We have sought for immediate revoking of the recent order of the NGT asking the coal miners in Meghalaya to pay up to Rs 480 per metric ton (MT) of coal as ‘environmental fund’ despite the royalty paid by them,” Shanpru told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday.
The NGT order while allowing the transportation of the extracted coal from the state has also made it mandatory for all concerned engaging in coal mining to pay the environmental fund.
According to Shangpru, this direction by the NGT has affected the coal miners ‘economically’, since it was never there in the previous years. “Making the coal miners pay an additional of payment of Rs 480 per MT of coal is not at all reasonable and acceptable,” he said adding “This is for the first time that such order was issued by the NGT.”
Expressing strong reservation against the fresh directive by the NGT, Shanpru informed, “We appealled that this order should be exempted from the state of Meghalaya.”
Informing that the petition has been admitted by the NGT, Shangpru ,however, said the green court had earlier fixed the hearing for this case on April 15 but later the hearing was rescheduled to April 21.
“Again today due to reasons not known, the NGT had deferred the hearing on the matter till April 30, which will be held at New Delhi,” Shanpru said.
The NGT had imposed a ban on coal mining in Meghalaya since the past one year on ground that the rat-hole mining practice in the state is ‘illegal’ and detrimental to the environment.
Meanwhile, the state government has been directed by the NGT to come up with Mining Plan and Mining Policy within six weeks.- By Our Reporter
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