A National Green Tribunal-constituted panel has suggested that the Meghalaya government put in place a coal mine surveillance system (CMSS) and develop a standard operating procedure to ensure effective follow up action in case any illegal mining or dumping of coal is detected.
In its fourth report to the tribunal, the panel, headed by Justice (retd) B.P. Katakey, recommended that within three months, the state government, with the assistance from the North Eastern Space Applications Centre, should set up the surveillance system and the standard operating procedure.
“The CMSS could be similar to the one that has been developed by the Union ministry of mines and the Indian Bureau of Mines with assistance from the Bhaskarcharya Institute of Space Application and Geo-informatics, and the Union ministry of electronics and information technology,” the report said.
