GUWAHATI: The Meghalaya high court has directed the state government to implement recommendations of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and Supreme Court (SC) on illegal rat-hole coal mining within four weeks.
One of the SC directions was allowing the sale of coal, which had already been extracted from mines, prior to a prohibition on rat-hole mining of coal in Meghalaya by NGT in 2014. It was later found that this direction was used as a loophole by many to extract fresh coal and say it was mined prior to the NGT order of 2014.
In an order passed on May 24, a high court bench comprising chief justice Sanjib Banerjee and justices HS Thangkhiew and W Diengdoh noted that “none of the directions issued by the Hon’ble Supreme Court…and the NGT have been complied with by the concerned authorities”.
