Shillong: Following a PIL filed in the Meghalaya High Court, the demolition of various illegal coke factories that have been mushrooming in the village of Shallang in West Khasi Hills (WKH) began on Sunday.
The development comes close on the heels of the arrest of four illegal coke plant owners by West Khasi Hills Police on June 26.
The plant that was destroyed on Sunday was owned by Balwan Bhama, the alleged kingpin of the illegal coal and coke business.
According to a source, at least 46 more such illegal factories will be dismantled in the coming days with July 20 being set as the target for completion of the demolition process.
“There are a total of 57 such units in Shallang of which 47 have no legal permission for operation. The factories were operating without any permission from authority concerned and registered owners,” said a government source on condition of anonymity.
The decision of dismantling these illegal factories was taken during a high-level meeting held in Shillong earlier. The meeting was led by the CM and saw the presence of the Chief Secretary, DGP along with other top officials of the present government.
Taking cognizance of the situation, CM Conrad Sangma sought the dismantling of the plants within July 10. However, given the paucity of time, the officials decided to ensure its completion by July 20.
“We will start again next week and finish as many as we can by the end of the week. We should be able to complete demolition of the coke factories by July 20,” sources said.
Of the 47 illegal coke factories, many were owned by residents from Assam and other parts of India, while quite a few of these illegal set ups even belong to influential businessmen from the Garo Hills region who were taking advantage of the laxity in administrative checks in WKH.
These factories were reportedly transporting over 200 trucks of illegally produced coke per day to many parts of Assam through various routes in both Khasi Hills and Garo Hills.
“It is really astonishing that these illegal operations were not stopped when it was started. Various administrations have passed through the district despite which no action was taken, which is surprising to say the least. Were these people sleeping while these illegalities were taking place?” asked the highly placed government source.
The mushrooming of these coke plants began as early as in 2017. Within a few months many such factories were set up to circumvent the ban on rat hole mining of coal in the state. As processed coal or coke was not banned, the business owners took advantage of the situation and began to transport these to other parts of the country. The coal, of course, was allegedly locally sourced, indicating that rat hole mining was still very much active.
Complaints regarding the mushrooming of these coke plants in the Shallang area were raised after these set ups began operations. Many from nearby areas had complained of pollution from these factories. These complaints, however, were strangely overlooked by both the government and the local administration.
“You need permission to operate even a cigarette shop anywhere in the state but these coke plants needed no such permissions for operation. Without political patronage this cannot be possible. The Court should also question how these were operating and at such large scales,” said a resident of WKH.
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Warnings by the HC had been sounded many years ago when the Court had sought answers from the state government and the administration though these were ignored or given little respect. However with the Court now getting serious about the entire illegal set up as well as illegal mining of coal through rat hole mining, action against the factories and those behind their set up is being taken up.
With at least 5 of these factory owners already behind bars, search, as per police sources, is currently on to locate and arrest the rest of the owners. Most of them, however, are currently said to be on the run.
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If all these illegal operations were stop when it was started, all of these won’t have happened.