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SHILLONG: On Friday, The Chief Secretary of the state and the Director General of Police (DGP) were ordered by the Meghalaya High Court on Thursday to submit additional affidavits outlining the steps taken by the authorities to halt illegal coal mining and transportation in the state. When a PIL was being heard, a bench presided over by Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee expressed its displeasure with the affidavits that the Chief Secretary and DGP had submitted in response to the decision dated May 15 and instructed them to submit new affidavits.
According to a report, “The instances referred to in Justice Katakey’s 13th interim report must be individually dealt with and both the chief secretary and the DGP will file further affidavits indicating measures taken to ensure that there is no breach of the subsisting orders in future. Such further affidavits should be filed within four weeks.”
The court further instructed the State to make sure that the old coal is disposed of in accordance with Justice Katakey's original schedule. Following a prohibition on rat-hole coal mining and coal transportation by the NGT in 2014, the High Court is keeping an eye on how previously extracted coal is being disposed of. Additionally, it asked for the deployment of ten CAPF companies to stop coal from being mined and transported illegally throughout the state.
In April,2023, The Meghalaya High Court has declined to absolve the state's administration of involvement in the shipment of coal that was illegally mined to Bangladesh.
The court took note of the State government's argument that a system has been put in place for preventing the illegal mining and transportation of coal within the State when it heard a public interest litigation (PIL) regarding the export of coal through western Meghalaya's Gasuapara land custom station on Tuesday.
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