Shillong, Apr 17: The Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government on Tuesday reiterated the need to pursue with the Centre to get Meghalaya exempted from the purview of Central laws related to mining even as the ban on coal mining in the state has completed four years.

The ban on coal mining in Meghalaya was imposed by the National Green Tribunal since April 17, 2014.

Meghalaya Chief Minister, Conrad K. Sangma while making a statement in Assembly on Tuesday, expressed concern over the loss of royalty where the collection used to be Rs 700 crore annually but now it has seen a drastic drop after the ban on coal.

He said that money flow due to coal trade was around Rs 4000 crore a year but this has been affected after the ban was imposed.

Stating that his government realizes the importance of economic activities and coal mining in the state he said, “We are committed to this cause as for the last four years, the people have been suffering in term of economic activity due to the ban on coal mining.”

“There was huge impact and I would like to mention in this House that the state government is concerned about the environment aspect,” Conrad said, while stressing the need to strike a balance between economic activities and protecting of environment and safety of miners.

“We are aware of the environmental hazards and as a government it will be our endeavour to ensure that at no cost should economic activities affect the environment in a negative or bad way,” the Chief Minister said.

Referring to the resolution unanimously passed by members of the ninth Meghalaya Assembly in 2015 to urge the Centre exempt the application of certain Central laws in Meghalaya under Para 12 A (b) of the Sixth Schedule by issuing a Presidential notification, the Chief Minister mentioned Central laws such as the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act, 1973, and Coal Bearing Area (Acquisition and Development) Act, 1957 that should be exempted from Meghalaya.

He also said that on Sunday, he along with Cabinet ministers met Union minister for Coal, Piyush Goyal and had a detailed discussion on the issue where the Minister called all officials concerned and discussed on what will be the procedures ahead.

“Some officials mentioned about environment issues and even the Coal Minister has expressed concern about the environment and safety of miners,” Conrad said.

Stating that some officials are camping in Delhi discussing with officials of the Union ministry of coal and environment and forest and climate change on the issue, Conrad said that a report would be submitted to the state government very soon.

Conrad said that during his visit to Delhi, he spoke to PMO officials and discussed with them about this issue which they have agreed to call a joint meeting after the meeting with the coal and environment and forest ministries is completed.

“I assure that we are going to work towards finding way forward in this particular case but at the same time ensuring that we take measures to ensure environment and miners are protected which we will never compromised. Therefore we will ensure that there is a proper policy in place more importantly a proper mechanism in place to ensure that policies are implemented properly and regular checking is done to see whether the people who are mining are breaking the law or not. It is a delicate and complicated issue but the government is trying from all angles to ensure that we get back to economic activities and coal mining will start again but not like it was before,” he said.

The Chief Minister also urged all stakeholders to ensure that economic activity and mining must start again “with a great responsibility on our part whether politicians, law makers, officials, miners or traders.”

“We must realize that the responsibility lies with each and every one of us to ensure that whatever policies created are implemented and action is taken against those who do not follow these policies. The miners themselves have to be responsible towards the environment and they must realize that this is our bread and butter, but we cannot compromise the environment and safety of our people and miners.”