BIG EXCLUSIVE
Fearing the disappearance of illegally mined coal lying in the dumps of East Jaintia Hills, Justice B.P. Katakey (Retired), appointed by the Meghalaya High Court to head the committee monitoring coal transportation and allied issues in the state, has directed the East Jaintia Hills district administration to urgently transport 1.43 lakh metric tonnes of illegal coal to Coal India Limited designated depots. The directive follows a significant discrepancy between aerial survey findings and ground verification, raising serious concerns over missing coal and the continued vulnerability of unprotected dumps in the district.
Talking to Meghalaya News 24, Justice Katakey revealed that an aerial survey conducted by Garuda UAV had earlier detected over 1.8 lakh metric tonnes of coal lying in 1572 dumps across East Jaintia Hills district. However, subsequent physical verification by the district authorities found only a little over 1.43 lakh metric tonnes, leaving around 36,000–37,000 metric tonnes unaccounted for. He said FIRs have already been registered in connection with the missing coal and investigations are underway.
Highlighting the scale of the issue, Justice Katakey said that in East Jaintia Hills alone, Garuda UAV identified 1,572 coal dumps during its aerial survey, which are separate from inventoried coal and are required to be transported exclusively to designated depots. He pointed out that while reaching out to the dumps identified by Garuda UAV was a task across four districts, East Jaintia Hills district administration has completed this exercise.
“I have instructed the East Jaintia Hills District Administrations to firstly reach out to those 1572 coal dumps. They have completed that exercise as I have told you that Garuda UAV found in 1572 coal dumps in East Jaintia Hills District almost little over 1.8 lakhs metric tons of coal, according to Garuda and they could on physical verification found little over 1.43 lakhs metric tons of coal and now the next step would be for transportation of of this 1.43 lakhs metric tons of coal to the designated depots because in CIL designated depots there are space where these illegally mined coal coal can be transported and accomodated. Unless we transport coal to the designated depots there is a possibility of disappearance of this coal 1.43 lakhs metric tons. These are illegally mined coal no doubt about it,” Justice Katakey said.
Emphasising the urgency, he added, “I have asked the District Administrations to transport these coals to the designated depots as fast as possible.”
The development once again underscores the persistent challenges in securing illegally mined coal from the dumps of East Jaintia Hills, even under judicial monitoring, and highlights the heightened risk of diversion and loss unless swift transportation to designated depots is ensured.
