Green tribunal permits sale of extracted coal

The National Green Tribunal today extended the ban on 'rat-hole coal mining' in Meghalaya till August this year but permitted sale of coal that already has been extracted.
The tribunal's special circuit bench, eastern zone, held its hearing at Meghalaya High Court in Shillong and was chaired by Justice Swatanter Kumar and former Meghalaya Chief Secretary and expert member Ranjan Chaterjee passed the order.
The tribunal ruled that ban on rat-hole coal mining would be in place until the next hearing on August 1.
During this period the state government and coal miners have the opportunity to work out a comprehensive mechanism to have in place to deter environmental degradation due to coal mining.

The tribunal further said that already extracted coal which has been lying in the state would be allowed to be shipped and sold. The tribunal earlier had also put a ban on transportation of coal from the state.
A six-member committee would be formed to prepare the inventory of the extracted coal. The committee would submit its report to the NGT within a week.
The royalty recovered from this extracted coal would be distributed between the district council and the government and this amount would be spent on land reclamation scheme.
The NGT put an interim ban on rat-hole coal mining in Meghalaya after the Assam-based All Dimasa Student's Union and Dima Hasao District Committee filed a petition before it, stating that the acidic discharge from unscientific coal mines of Meghalaya was polluting the Kopili River downstream.