Mukul asks govt to act against illegal lifting of 1.41 lakh Mt of coal

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaMarch 7, 2021

Congress leader and former chief minister Mukul Sangma has asked the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government to take action against the perpetrators involved in the illegal lifting of the 1.41 lakh metric tonnes of coal in West Jaintia Hills District causing huge loss to the state’s revenue.

When asked about the recent order by the Meghalaya Lokayukta on his petition, Sangma however said that he would be looking at what were the submission of the state government before the Lokayukta and based on which, he would accordingly give his reaction.

“I have already entrusted my lawyer to look at all the materials made available before the Lokayukta and the submission made,” he said. 

Stating that there are two things, Sangma said one is the issue which reflects the continuation of illegal mining and the other is the record which shows that there were as many as 1.41 lakh MT of coal, which was reported by a villager and based on which an inquiry was ordered by the deputy commissioner concerned.

“That material was also provided to me by an RTI activist based on which I had gone for inspection (to Khliehrangnah). So what does the material indicate in as far as the quantity is concerned, it is 1.41 lakh metric tonnes. When we went (there) I could understand that the quantity was not as indicated after a few months of that report because it was given in June or July last year. Nonetheless, the visit has indicated one thing which is in the interpretation of law or prima facie case indicating that there has been lifting of those coal because 1.41 lakh mt of coal was not there anymore. So that means the quantity of coal that was there as per the assessment report has disappeared, how has it disappeared it means it has been lifted illegally in connivance with the people in authority, unless there is proper investigation, it cannot be found out,” he said.

“But it is a prima facie case of substantial amounts of coal which has been transported without paying royalty or without giving any revenue to the government. So, it is a prima facie case. That means somebody has entered into a criminal conspiracy case to allow this to happen thereby depriving the states from its own revenue. So it attracts the provision of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1980,” he added. 

Asking the state government to file a case under the provision of the Act, the Leader of Opposition said, “(It should) find out who is responsible for that and how much money from the exchequer’s point of view siphoned off through this whole modus operandi.”

According to him, this well scripted modus operandi will not be known easily unless one understands why the script has been prepared and what is the intention behind this script.

Reiterating that it is a prima facie case as the state has been robbed of the royalty which could have added to the revenue of the government, Sangma demanded by saying, “Therefore the government must try to recover its revenue which has been lost and go after the perpetrators and criminals, put them behind the bars and prosecute them as per the law.”

“Please remember one thing section 21 sub section 1 provides imprisonment for violation of the provision of the MMDR Act and sub section 6 of section 21 of MMDR Act also says it is cognizable offence. So, when we say take action as per law, they have to interpret this whole action in consistent with this provision, otherwise everybody will be responsible for hiding the facts, for destroying the evidence whether it is officer or anybody. destroying of evidence itself is again a criminal offence.”