Gasuapara: Following complaints by locals and exporters, the headman (locally known as Nokma) of Gasuapara village on Thursday served an eviction notice to illegal coal kingpin Balwan Soni alias Bhama asking him to leave the Gasuapara Land Customs port within 2 days.
As per the notice, Bhama has been asked to leave the port in South Garo Hills within a period of 2 days and failing which legal action would be initiated.
Balwan has been in the limelight for quite a few reasons, including the use of e-way bills for the export of coal showing that the coal has been obtained from outside the state despite transporting illegally obtained coal from the Nongalbibra–Jadi areas.
For reasons best known to the Meghalaya government, only Bhama’s firm was allowed operation and only the e-way bills generated by his firm could be used to export coal to Bangladesh through Gasuapara port.
Bhama has been in the public eye for the past one year after being arrested in tax fraud case by Assam police prior to his involvement in another incident in the illegally constructed coke factory, where his son along with accomplices assaulted the partner of their coke business.
However, Bhama once again entered the Gasuapara port this year after winning an auction of coal held recently by Coal India Limited. He has been exporting coal through his challans through Gasuapara LCS since then. His challans, as per sources, ran out after which the problems began as he attempted to intervene in the functioning of the port.
On June 5, Gasuapara residents held a public meeting in the village regarding complaints against Balwan after he allegedly took money from exporters and promised to provide them e-way bills for the transport of coal. However, after his operations were shut down by the Court, the case for which is still pending in the Meghalaya High Court, Bhama failed to deliver on his promises.
However, despite taking huge money in cash, Bhama has been reluctant to pay those from whom he had taken the money.
The meeting held on June 6 referred to Bhama’s illegal activities in Gasuapara, causing a lot of suffering to the people of the area.
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“Based on the huge number of complaints on the basis of your recent activities that have caused problems and sufferings to the people of Gasuapara, we have decided to give you 2 days to vacate Gasuapara. If you fail to do so within the 2 days, legal action will be taken against you,” stated the notice sent by the Nokma of Gasuapara AM Sangma and Nokma of Ronnseppre PD Sangma.
“I have asked him multiple times to return my money but he has denied my request. This has been a similar story for a whole lot of us (exporters). We had no option but to seek the Nokma’s intervention,” said one of the local exporters on the condition of anonymity.
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