Meghalaya Government would create a separate fund to reclaim all the lands degraded due to coal mining to make them fit for farming and habitable and stop environmental degradation.
"The state government will earmark a separate fund to replenish all these areas to make it fit for vegetation and farming activities," Chief Minister Mukul Sangma said in the Assembly.
Stating that many other countries had done the same, he said, "Mapping will also be done on all those areas affected by mining including abandon coal mines across the state for the purpose of reclaiming."
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He said it would a part of various initiatives taken by the government to protect the environment.
Following an interim order issued by the National Green Tribunal on April 17, the state government issued orders banning unscientific rat-hole mining of coal in the state.
The order came after the All Dimasa Students' Union moved the NGT claiming that rat-hole mining in Jaintia Hills was polluting the Kopili River and turning its water acidic.
