A Correspondent
Bokajan: The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) organizing secretary Bedanta Saikia, in a press meet questioned the credibility of State HAD Minister Sum Ronghang for his alleged silence over the illegal coal mining activities in the hill district of Karbi Anglong. Minister Ronghang also holds the office of the Department of Mines and Minerals, Government of Assam.
The student leader alleged that illegal mining activities were going on unabated in the Disobai area under Diphu LAC and Koilamati and Koilajan areas under Bokajan LAC, under the very nose of the district administration. Dozens of excavators are engaged to carry out this illegal practice, thereby threatening the ecological balance and the rare floral diversity of Karbi Anglong.
The student leader recalled that MLA Dr Numal Momin, accompanied by a team of police, magistrate and forest officials, raided an illegal mining site under Nambor Reserve Forest along the bank of River Nambor back in January, 2018. Over 1,000 CM of illegally extracted soft coal was confiscated in the raid.
“An inquiry into the matter was also instituted at the directive of the State Government after a voice clip involving illegal coal mining and a BJP councillor of KAAC went viral on social media and also surfaced in several news reports. However, the inquiry findings were not made public for reasons best known to them,” the student leader alleged.
“Surprisingly, the coal mafia here have obtained a settlement order for lifting the quantity of the same confiscated coal from government custody. Taking advantage of this order, the coal mafia have allegedly stated excavation and mining in the Nambor reserve forest and piling up the stock as the settlement order already provides the smugglers a kind of legitimacy for transporting coal from the mining sites to onward destinations,” Saikia said.
“We have raised the issue several times in the past. However, neither the forest department nor the competent authority of Mines and Minerals have taken any realistic steps to stop illegal mining of this low grade soft coal in the hills of Karbi Anglong,” Saikia added. Each year, as the winter proceeds, the same coal mining controversy grips the hill district of Karbi Anglong. Be it the Congress or the BJP, illegal mining of a low grade soft coal has prevailed in the district for decades.
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