Guwahati: The Meghalaya High Court has reprimanded the state government for allowing the export of coal through land customs stations in the state without seeking to ascertain the source or origin of such coal.
A division bench of Meghalaya High Court comprising Chief Justice Sanjb Banerjee and Justice W Diengdoh pulled up the Conrad Sangma-led government on Thursday while hearing a PIL filed by Champer M Sangma.
“It is alarming that despite the state understanding the purport of the request by Central agencies, it was so lax that it allowed tens of thousands of metric tonnes of coal to be cleared for export through land customs stations within the state without, apparently, seeking to ascertain the source or origin of such coal,” the bench said.
The high court said several letters were issued to the state by central agencies and by the Union Finance Ministry before the suo motu proceedings pertaining to illegal coal mining and illegal transportation of the illegally-mined coal being instituted in this court.
“The Central agencies suspected such activities and in the letters referred to in the previous order warned the state, including through the Union Minister of Finance. The state, not only did not take any steps, but actively concealed these letters from the court with glib apology recorded above at paragraph 12 of its recent affidavit,” the bench said.
The high court said that the “complicity of the state with the mafia and the racket operating in the illegal mining of coal and its illegal transportation is clear and obvious and there can be little doubt that the higher-ups in the administration are the beneficiaries of the illegal gains and responsible for the colossal loss of revenue that has been occasioned to the state.”
The Meghalaya government in its recent affidavit, said, “The state tenders an unconditional apology for not putting on record these documents in these proceedings on earlier occasion or else the observations made by this Hon’ble Court in order dated 17.05.2023 attributing complicity to the state would never have occasioned”
The Court said indeed, the suo motu proceedings pertaining to the illegal mining of coal were initiated in or about March of 2022 and matters pertaining to the illegal transportation of such illegally-mined coal were addressed in several orders from or about April, 2022.