Meghalaya HC Pulls Up State Govt for Allowing Coal Export Without Seeking Origin

The Meghalaya High Court has pulled up the Conrad Sangma government for allowing the export of coal through land and customs stations in the state without seeking to ascertain the source of the origin of such coal.

A division bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice Sanjb Banerjee and Justice W Diengdoh stated this while hearing a PIL ON Thursday. The PIL was filed by Champer M Sangma.

The division bench said, “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 high court further said that the Union Finance Ministry issued several letters to the state before the suo motu proceedings pertaining to illegal coal-mining and illegal transportation of the illegally-mined coal were 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 a glib apology recorded above at paragraph 12 of its recent affidavit," the bench said.

The high court said that it will be open to the petitioner and the respondents to deal with the contents of the latest affidavit filed by the state. The next hearing of the case will be held on June 15.

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