SHILLONG, JUNE 4: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Wednesday said the state government has received a positive response from the Centre on allowing coal mining for small miners, but added that he would not disclose details until final clearance is granted.
“We are trying to address them by seeking permission from the government of India where smaller mines can be given permission. We are getting a positive response but I would refrain from giving details right now until and unless we have the final clearance from the government,” Sangma told reporters.
The Chief Minister said the government is working under constraints to balance livelihood, miner safety, and environmental concerns.
“Again, you see on this there is no right answer to this. It will always be a challenge and we are working with constraints and with difficulties and we need to balance out all aspects,” he said. “While coal mining is a livelihood aspect which is very important, I have been mentioning but yet we have to at the same time balance the safety of the miners and the impact on the environment, therefore, that is what we are trying to achieve.” He added, “In the process, there will never be a kind of a perfect system that we will be able to achieve, there will always be challenges ahead and we are trying to overcome those challenges and find what is best suited for our state and for our miners.” Sangma said the state is working closely with the Government of India to move forward. “We are working very closely with everyone including the government of India and as I said we are making strides forward and we are hopeful that slowly and steadily things will reach to a point where we are able to really balance out things in a much better and more perfect manner.”
On current mining operations, the Chief Minister said larger mines have already received clearance. “As of now, the larger mines, the 100 hectares mines, are being permitted by the government of India and four mines as I said permissions have been given out of which three mines are already active.” “In fact, large quantities of coal from this scientifically mined coal have already started being exported outside the state. So the process has started but we have a long way to go and our concern is actually the small miners, who are not having the kind of requisite areas that are required,” he said.
Addressing the issue of abandoned mines following two recent deaths, Sangma said the scale of the problem is enormous.
“The problem as I said is that there are more than 21,000 abandoned mines just in one district and if you put them all together in the state, there may be close to about 25000 mines and these are all in different locations.”
“It is almost next to impossible for us to really go into all these aspects and these mines have been there for centuries not only decades, they have been there,” he said. “So, yes this is a challenge and all of this has come on us in this kind of limited time and space and multiple challenges are being addressed but as I said we are working on them and we ensure that we balance things out.” “I stress on the word balance because that is really what is important. While we have to look at livelihood, we have to ensure that we continue to take care of our people, we need to also take care of the lives and the safety of the miners,” the Chief Minister added.
