SHILLONG, FEB 16: Amidst the apprehension about open-cast progressive scientific mining of coal in Meghalaya, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Friday said the mining plans are made by the mining engineers and experts.
Asked, he, however, refuse to comment on the mining plans of four project proponents approved by the Centre for carrying open cast mining.
Speaking to reporters, Conrad said, “They have got their own mining plans. I am not an expert in the mining plans and hence I don’t want to comment on all those aspects but all the plans will be approved by the central government agencies (and that) is what is being done.”
Stating that the process is tedious, the CM said, “Because as I said there are different aspects of the land holdings being different in our state compared to the others and hence the policies that apply here are different from the policies that apply in the rest of the country and so on and so forth.”
He said, “So keeping all those factors in mind and the fact that this is happening for the first time things are taking a bit longer than we would want to but once we have a system that comes into the place, the policies and as and when the tweaking takes place for the cases for Meghalaya and wherever adjustments need to be made based on the different conditions, I am pretty sure that in the coming months and years, the following processes will be much more smoother. Therefore, it is a process.”
The CM said that the government is happy that things are moving in the right direction so that scientific mining of coal can start very soon.
“We are very hopeful that things should be happening very soon. So let us wait and hope for the best. As I said we are very positive it is in the right track but I don’t want to share too much I will speak about it more when it actually happens,” he said.
Earlier, former chief minister Mukul Sangma also said that he will not be able to say whether open cast mining will be feasible in Meghalaya without seeing the complete interpretation of the technical part.
He said there are two things, which are very crucial – one is the technicality and one is the legality.
“So in as far as the technical part is concerned what is the type of technical rather what is the type of mining technology that they would like to be put in place will be determined by the respective miners I think that is how I understand in as far as the kind of mining which must have been taken into consideration as they examined the proposal and examine the mining plan and therefore, unless I look at the technicality part this whole consideration which has taken place and ultimately resultant in the approval of this mining plan, I will not be able to say. We will have to see everything from the technicality perspective,” Mukul said.