OUR CORRESPONDENT
TINSUKIA: The Dihing Patkai illegal coal mining issue is getting momentum after the Gauhati High Court was apprised by the Standing Counsel of the Forest Department that the one-man inquiry committee headed by retired Justice BP Katakey was in progress and the finalization of the report would take further four weeks' time, even as the committee was supposed to submit the report in January after completion of 6 months' time-frame.
Hearing three PILs in one go- PIL (Suo Moto) 3/2020, PIL 29/2020 and PIL 30/2020 filed by advocates and mountaineer, a bench comprising of Chief Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Suman Shyam passed the order and fixed March 15 as the next date of hearing. Submission of Justice Katakey's report has become crucial because the court earlier had maintained that the recommendation of the inquiry committee must be known to the court before proceeding in the case, informed a petitioner advocate.
Though the one-man inquiry committee had a public hearing at Margherita on December 27 and December 28 on the basis of terms of reference, that included illegal mining activities and its ramification in and around Saleki PRF under Digboi Forest division and Tikok OCP, the response was lukewarm as a good section of people and organizations is opposed to the closure of mining activities because mining is the lifeline of the Ledu colliery belt.