The Hynniewtrep Youths’ Council (HYC) has issued a strong caution to the Government of India and the Government of Meghalaya against what it termed as a “blind and premature” announcement and disbursement of ex-gratia compensation in connection with the recent fatal blasting incidents at illegal rat-hole mining sites in East Jaintia Hills district, asserting that sympathy cannot override legality and due process.
Taking a firm stand, the organisation said the Centre and the state must prioritise accountability over optics and legality over emotional populism. “No identity, no nationality, no verification—then no public money,” the HYC said, underscoring that ex-gratia compensation cannot be released without mandatory verification of the identity and nationality of all deceased persons. The group also demanded a criminal investigation to identify mine owners, contractors and facilitators behind the illegal blasting, as well as those allegedly enabling the entry and employment of illegal immigrants in the state.
HYC president Roy Kupar Synrem reiterated that while the organisation sympathises with the affected families, compassion cannot come at the cost of law. “Compensation without verification is not compassion but rather it is the Government using public money to sanitise illegality and reward an underground criminal economy,” he said, warning that any such move would set a dangerous precedent.
The HYC made it unequivocally clear that no public money should be released unless the antecedents, identity and nationality of the deceased are first verified. Citing reports that illegal migrants and non-local labourers, many of whom may not even be Indian citizens, are largely engaged at these mining sites, the organisation said disbursing compensation without verification is not humanitarianism but administrative irresponsibility and misuse of public funds.
Emphasising that public ex-gratia is meant for lawful citizens, the HYC said it should not be used to reward or indirectly legitimise illegal mining, illegal employment and illegal presence. Any payment made without verification, it warned, would only embolden those facilitating and employing illegal migrants, further entrenching an unlawful and dangerous mining ecosystem in the state.
