Leader of Opposition and former Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma has said that there is a need for a proper investigation into the failure of the NPP-led MDA government to start legal mining of coal in the state.
Speaking to reporters, Mukul Sangma, “For the best reasons known to the people in government and also to the chief minister, who is holding the portfolio of mining and geology, they have not done anything to facilitate this whole resumption of mining or rather starting of mining in conformity with various statutory laws.”
He alleged that the MDA government instead of going all out of the way based on what promises they made, they did not want to see a legal mining start.
This is something which requires proper investigation under the backdrop of innumerable repeated alleged irregularities and alleged illegal coal mining taking place across the state including illegal transportation at the cost of the interest of the state and the people.
“Therefore it requires an investigation and that is what we have all along been demanding. Have the state government been responsive? No, the state government were all the time on a denial mode,” he said.
He said the Meghalaya High Court has also taken cognizance of the matter and pulled up the state government and that the reasons for this are known to the people of the state.
He said that many people have been expressing their concerns and have tried to draw the attention of the government and the authorities but they have not succeeded in doing so because the government has been very meticulously ensuring that okay whatever narratives pertaining to coal mining is taking place are not based on facts but whilst its just the opposite.
On the contrary, the leader of opposition said that the instances of blatant illegal mining continued and that kind of blatant mining activities of this scale cannot happen unless it is under the patronage of the authorities themselves.
The High Court has taken cognizance and in some of its orders had indicated that the contempt proceedings should be initiated against some of the officers in respect of some of the districts.
“These are glaring reflections of what is happening under the complete patronage of the government and that is a serious violation rather serious breach of the trust and confidence of the people of the state who have given them the mandate during the elections.”
The former chief minister has referred to the promise made by the NPP and its alliance partners to ensure immediate resumption of coal mining as a “blatant lie”.
He said that the MDA had gone to the people and create the momentum of narratives pertaining to coal mining that the moment they are able to form the government, mining will start immediately.
Stating that they knew that they were all engaging in blatant lies, Mukul said he is not surprised because they themselves have clearly told about their usual election strategy which is “telling people lies to get votes”.
He said this statement was made by none other than the statement of the Deputy Chief Minister (Prestone Tynsong) of the MDA government and who is also the national vice president of the NPP.
“So you can understand the manner in which they try to take people for a ride. This is something which people have seen and people have understood and people know that they are engaging in nothing but lies during the elections,” he added.
When asked, the leader of opposition said that the people in authority should be pulled up for their deliberate failure to protect the interest of the state by allowing illegal coal mining to continue in the state of Meghalaya.