Shillong: A day ahead of the 45-day deadline given by the Meghalaya High Court to complete the transportation of reassessed, re-verified, re- inventoried coal, Justice (retired) BP Katakey, heading the single-member committee constituted by the HC, reported that 75,000 metric tons of coal is yet to be transported to the designated depots.
Katakey has now directed and given 15 days’ time to the district administration to complete it.
Earlier, on March 14, 2024, the High Court had granted 45 days for the transportation of the remaining reassessed coal.
In a meeting held on Friday, Katakey learned that out of four districts – West Khasi Hills, South West Khasi Hills, South Garo Hills, and East Jaintia Hills district, 70,000 MT of coal is yet to be transported to their designated depot in East Jaintia Hills District. Whereas other Districts like West Khasi Hills, South West Khasi Hills, and South Garo Hills have almost completed the transportation process.
East Jaintia Hills District which has the highest amount of coal earlier had 1.3 lakh MT of coal which was left to be transported. Now in the meantime, they have transported almost a little over 60,000 metric tons, and now a little over 70,000 MT is yet to be transported to their designated depot. The Deputy Commissioner of South West Khasi Hills also informed Katakey that 5,000 MT will be transported by tomorrow.
Now, the deputy commissioner of East Jaintia Hills District will also have to verify the existence of that 70,000 metric tons of coal, which has not been transported to the designated depot by the coal miners, because there may be chances that it doesn’t exist.
“There may be two reasons one is that coal owners are not interested or another reason may be that coal presently is not available, because it is already sold out not by the Coal India Limited (CIL) but by the coal owners themselves. So therefore that has to be verified and after verification, whether it is 70,000 metric tons or less than that it has to be transported to the designated depot,” explained Katakey.
He also expressed disappointment that most of the coal put to auction was sold, but the lifting so far has not been done satisfactorily. The measured quantity of the coal is yet to be lifted since the auction purchasers are citing that the market is down.
“Since the process of auction is time-consuming and also out of the sale profit some amount has to be paid to Coal India Limited as well as the agency conducting the auction. I have allowed the government to extend the time for payment of bid value by the successful bidder. But intimidating them that this is the last chance given to them to deposit whatever may be the value and if they do not do that, then the entire money would be forfeited. And it would be put to re-auction because that quantity is already in the designated depot,” mentioned Katakey.
The efforts of the single-member committee are to transfer the inventoried coal to the designated depot so that it is in a central place and thereafter to have a drone survey of the concerned four districts about the availability of any other coal.
It may be mentioned that the Single Member Committee was able to verify and reassess a little over 14 lakh MT of coal and not 32 lakh MT of coal as stated in the affidavit filed by the state government before the Supreme Court.
He said that whatever coal after the transportation of the 14 lakh MT will be found to have been illegally mined coal, which again has to be seized and put to auction, and that the price of that coal will not go to the coal owners but it will come to the state Exchequer only.
Katakey will also take the assistance of NESAC and they will be part of the next meeting. The aim is to explore the possibility of satellite images of coal-producing areas to find out whether any more coal is available and if they find any available or mined coal on land that is illegally mined coal and entire coal has to be seized and no amount would be paid to coal owners. The entire sale profit will go to the state for the benefit of the people of Meghalaya.
So far 5 lakh 88,956 MT of coal has been sold in auction but the full payment in respect of only 1 lakh 48,353 has been made. This means that the bidders are yet to make the payment of almost 4 lakh 40,000 sold in auction citing that the market is down.
Reclamation looked by Oversight Committee
The reclamation is looked after by the Oversight Committee which has been conceived by the NGT. Katakey also discussed in the meeting held on Friday about the alternative employment to be generated for the coal miners. He said that not only the owner of the land but also other persons the local persons were also involved and because of the stoppage of these activities, they’re suffering financially and that matter is also before the Oversight Committee.
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“They are looking into it and they have also constituted a technical committee and technical committees in session of the matter. And I have also emphasized the closure of the mine pits because those are causing various incidents of loss of human life, loss of livestock, particularly during the monsoon, these pits are full of water, the children go and jump there to swim, but because of the highly acidic water maybe some of them will suffer,” explained Katakey.
He added that they have asked Central Mine Planning & Design Institute Limited (CMPDI) to prepare a detailed project report and certain sites have been identified for them to do it on the pilot project. If they are successful, then only they will implement it on the other sites.
The High Court has fixed May 1, for the next hearing.
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