Shillong, Dec 10: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma today said that rat-hole coal mining has been practised in Meghalaya for two centuries and therefore, this activity, which now stands illegal, is not easy for the people involved in it to give up. Sangma said 200 years before 2014, rat-hole coal mining had sustained lakhs of families in the State.

Rat-hole coal mining has been banned by an order of the National Green Tribunal in 2014 as it causes damage to the environment and the flora and fauna. Moreover, these dangerous mines have caused loss of lives in the State.

“Trying to implement this (ban) mandate is very complicated, keeping in mind the history of 200 years,” the Chief Minister said. Nonetheless, the Government has acted on reports of such illegal mining and “thousands of cases ha

See Full Page