Panel ags poor progress in reversing coal mining damage in Meghalaya
A one-member panel appointed by the High Court of Meghalaya to handle coal-related issues has agged the lack of progress in restoring the environment damaged by rat-hole coal mining in the northeastern State.
Justice Brojendra Prasad Katakey (retired) underlined the non-utilisation of the Meghalaya Environment Protection and Restoration Fund (MEPRF), apart from the sanctioning of a few projects.
The High Court appointed Justice Katakey in April 2022 to recommend measures to the Meghalaya government in compliance with the directions issued by the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which had banned the hazardous rathole coal mining in April 2014.
Rat-hole mining involves digging small tunnels large enough for a person to crawl through to extract coal.
In its 22nd interim report submitted to the court last week, the panel said necessary steps need to be taken by the departments concerned for restoring the mining-a«ected ecology of Meghalaya with ¢400 crore in the MEPRF and another ¢100 crore with the Central Pollution Control Board.
It said that the people living in areas around the mines — most of them abandoned — continue to su«er due to continued acid mine drainage from the mine pits that have not been closed yet.
The committee also said that auditing the source of coal used in the coke oven, ferroalloy, and captive power plants of cement factories was under way and expected to be completed within three weeks.
An audit committee formed for this purpose considered the representations from two coke plants. It apprised the Katakey panel of ¢2.24 crore to be paid by these two plants toward royalty and cess for using unaccounted coal.
The panel recommended the conduct of the drone survey (to locate deposits of coal illegally mined) immediately after the completion of the transportation of re-assessed or re-veried inventoried coal to the Coal India Limited-designated depots.