Rat-hole mining: Meghalaya High Court takes suo motu cognisance after Shillong Times article

The Meghalaya High Court on Wednesday took suo motu cognisance of a newspaper article highlighting the prevalence of rat-hole mining in the State's West Khasi Hills district [In Re Suo Motu Illegal Mining of Coal in the State of Meghalaya]..A Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice W Diengdoh asked the Chief Secretary and the Meghalaya Director-General of Police to submit a report after visiting the area.The Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police will be free to take the assistance of the correspondent who wrote the article after visiting the area, it added..The Bench, in a brief order, repeatedly stressed on the seriousness of the issue, observing,"It is imperative that the matter be immediately looked into ... [The Additional Advocate-General is] called upon by the Court to immediately communicate this order to the appropriate personnel. The matter requires immediate, serious attention.".The Court warned that the issue detailed in the report needs to be deeply probed without political agendas."It is made clear that the matter complained of needs to be looked into, without any political interference; or else, the Court may be constrained to appoint a fact-finding committee or even put a special investigation team in place or take the assistance of some agency so that the matter is appropriately and thoroughly investigated in accordance with law and the persons involved are brought to book," it ordered.The Shillong Times article gave a detailed description of how in the Nengchigen village bordering the South Garo Hills District, 'rat-hole mining” was happening in a widespread manner. It mentioned that a complaint has been lodged by the Nokma (village headman) of Nengchigen against certain persons, including the police, on illegal mining in clan lands. .Rat-hole mining is a practice of excavation in Meghalaya where miners go through narrow horizontal tunnels about 150 metres dug against deep vertical shafts.Coal mining in Meghalaya is being restored in a limited capacity in phases, after the Supreme Court in 2019 set aside a 2014 order of the National Green Tribunal that ordered a blanket ban on coal mining in the State. .Additional Advocate General B Bhattacharjee appeared for the State..[Read Order]