Exclusive
In a major revelation that once again exposes the scale of Meghalaya’s coal mining mess, Justice (Retd) B.P. Katakey has flagged that more than 18,000 metric tonnes of illegally mined coal have gone missing in East Jaintia Hills alone and directed the Deputy Commissioner to lodge FIRs without delay. Chairing a follow-up review on compliance with his 32nd interim report, Katakey said, “I have directed the Deputy Commissioner to prepare a road map and submit the road map before my next meeting on October 16. In respect of 138 depots, there is a shortage of 18,289 MT in East Jaintia Hills District and that is also huge quantity. I have directed the Deputy Commissioner of East Jaintia Hills District to lodge FIR against the missing coal also.”
He expressed concern that only a fraction of the identified coal depots had been verified, pointing to glaring mismatches between independent assessments and district-level checks. Garuda, the agency engaged to map illegal coal, had reported the existence of nearly 1.8 lakh MT across multiple depots in East Jaintia Hills. Yet, out of over 1,500 identified coordinates, verification could be carried out in only 138, with most depots left unchecked due to the monsoon season. Even within this limited exercise, Katakey noted, “there was shortage of 18,289 MT between the Garuda report and the verification done by the Deputy Commissioner.”
He further flagged discrepancies in volumetric assessments in South West Khasi Hills, where the Meghalaya Basin Development Authority (MBDA) and district authorities reported different figures—333 MT in Diengngan village and 587 MT at Rajaju depot—together amounting to more than 900 MT of missing coal. “That is illegally mined coal, I have directed the Deputy Commissioners to lodge the FIRs relating to that and directed the police to make necessary inquiry and investigation to find out the truth where this quantity has gone,” Katakey said.
On the industrial front, Katakey ordered the demolition of 33 coke oven plants—16 to 17 in East Jaintia Hills and the rest in South West Khasi Hills—after the Supreme Court made it clear that non-compliant plants cannot be regularised. “Because the Deputy Commissioner has to abide by the judgement passed by the Supreme Court… whoever do not comply with certain norms or their plant cannot be regularised, you should demolish it,” he stressed.
Denying reports of mushrooming coke units, Katakey clarified, “On the last occasion, I had directed the Pollution Control Board to have the field verification, today they have submitted a report and according to their report there is no coke oven plants in any of the districts particularly those four districts other than coke oven plants which have required permissions. There is no report of mushrooming of coke plants in Meghalaya.”
