Shillong: The Meghalaya government welcomed the decision of the Meghalaya High Court on the appointment of Justice (retired) B.P. Katakey to ascertain whether the directions issued by the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had been complied with to stop the illegal coal mining in the State.
“We are happy with the High Court decision by instituting a Committee headed by a retired judge. It is good since people have been blaming the MDA (Meghalaya Democratic Alliance) government does this and that (apparently referring to the alleged illegal mining and transportation of coal in the State,” Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong told reporters.
“With this decision taken by the High Court , people will understand that the MDA government is doing the right thing and if it (government) is not the doing the right this committee is there and it will take strict action,” Tynsong said.
On Tuesday, a Full Bench of the High Court on Tuesday directed the Meghalaya government to “cooperate” with Justice Katakey to oversee the compliance of the Supreme Court and National Green Tribunal’s directives on coal mining activities in the State.
The former judge of the Gauhati High Court will also look into the measures adopted by the State government to ensure that there is no unregulated or illegal coal mining or any instance of rat-hole mining anywhere, the bench said.
It also asked Justice Katakey should file a preliminary report on the compliance of the orders of the SC and the NGT and what more needs to be done, within four weeks.
Justice Katakey was appointed chairman of the NGT-committee by a Supreme Court order on August 31, 2018. The committee was mandated to “take stock of all actions taken,” to restore the environment and rehabilitate victims in coal mining-affected areas in Meghalaya.
In December 2019, Justice Katakey resigned from the NGT panel citing “personal reasons” but apparently the decision was taken due to “non-cooperation” from the state government.
As a chairman of the NGT panel, Justice Katakey made several recommendations and a number of the recommendations formed the basis for the directions issued by the Supreme Court in the order of July 3, 2019.
