Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Thursday said a committee of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has approved transportation of two lakh metric tonne of coal in the state on condition that safety and environment norms will be followed.
The NGT committee headed by Justice (Retd) B D Agarwal which met here on Thursday has given the nod for transportation of the two lakh MT of coal on a pilot basis in four districts, the chief minister said.
"I am happy to inform stakeholders of coal in our state that the NGT committee has approved on a pilot basis to auction 2 lakh metric tonne out of 32 lakh metric tonne of coal. In East Jaintia Hill 75,000 MT, in West Khasi Hills 50,000 MT, South West Khasi Hills 25,000 MT and in South Garo Hills 50,000 MT," he told reporters.
Sangma said, "Transparent online auctioning... will be conducted by the government-owned MSTC Limited (Metal Scrap and Trading Corporation). Government of Meghalaya has no role to play in the auctioning process."
According to the chief minister, the state is likely to benefit by least Rs 20 crore as revenue from the process.
Of the total auction, 10 per cent of the bid value will be deducted by Coal India Limited at source while the rest will be transferred to the state government after which royalties will be deducted, he said, adding that the remaining money will be transferred to the respective coal stock owner.
The chief minister also warned that illegal extraction or transportation of coal, if found, will attract legal actions under section 21 of the MMDR Act 1957 (that include a penalty of at least 5 years imprisonment).
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The NGT committee has given the nod with strict instructions that safety and strict environmental norms will be followed.
The chief minister said different temporary depots will be set up across the state to ensure that strict environmental norms will be followed during the auctions and during transportation of coal.
He also said that there will be several checks and balances like the presence of CIL officials, foolproof security measures like the QR code, hologram, fugitive ink in four copies of challans.
The chief minister also informed that the state government will soon be coming up with a procedure for environmental friendly and scientific mining.
"The onus now lies in the coal miners to prepare scientific mining plans and get it approved by the Government of India. Every miner has to go through their own process to do that. We have started sensitizing the people. We have done sensitizing programmes in more than five districts telling them the same," he said.
Sanga said consultants were identified who will guide the miners even as the state government is also preparing a draft environment and scientific friendly mining plan.
Till date, four coal miners have applied for approval. We expect many more to come. "I hope that 10-15 more will come to us," he said.
"We hope that things will move fast. Very soon, mining should start depending on government of India approval," the chief minister said.
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