Staff Reporter
SHILLONG:
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on September 29 said that the process to obtain a licence for mining coal in the state is “a very complicated process”.
Sangma informed that in terms of scientific mining, the process is already on, and a large number of miners have already applied for prospecting licences.
“The process is already on and based on the Supreme Court Ruling in July 2019 all these steps have been initiated and let’s hope we will see some of the mining licences come out earlier than expected so we are keeping our fingers crossed,” he said.
The Chief Minister also informed that almost 15 to 18 miners have received prospecting licences and some of them have also gone ahead and submitted their mining plan.
“…which will then get approval from different agencies and scientific mining can also start,” Sangma said.
The Meghalaya High Court on September 26, asked the state government to initiate a comprehensive process for permitting mining of coal in the state.
“A comprehensive process may be initiated by the state government, at its discretion, for permitting mining of coal upon due adherence to the provisions of the (MMDR) Act of 1957,” a full bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee said in its order passed while hearing a PIL on the matter.
The bench also directed the state government to come up with final plans for auctioning and transportation of the over 31.26 lakh of already extracted coal lying in different parts of the state.
“Final plans for transportation and auction should be placed before the matter is taken up next and the process of auction started, if possible. The matter will appear three weeks hence,” it said.