Shillong, Jan 16: Four out of 17 miners are all set to be granted with licenses to start scientific mining of coal in Meghalaya after their respective geological reports were given the necessary approval by the Centre.

Informing this here on Monday, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma told reporters that the Ministry of Coal has finally given the state government in writing that the geological reports submitted by four miners have been approved by the Government of India.

“This is one step away from the mining license to now be given. Hence, these four applicants will submit their mining plans as per the norms laid down by the Government of Meghalaya and Government of India,” Sangma said.

“We expect that the licenses should shortly be given to these four miners…Hence, this is a major step towards now opening up mining in a scientific manner. We are very hopeful that very soon the scientific process for mining will start in the state,” he added.

Stating that it has been a very long and tedious process, the chief minister said, “…it requires us to first of all lift the ban, create the SOPs, there were certain terms and conditions that were laid down by Government of India which we have to fulfill, prospecting licenses have to be done, geological surveys and reports have to be made – so a lot of works have to be put into.”

When asked about the other applicants, Sangma said, “The others will follow but what is important is that the process has now started.”

He added, “This is great news for the entire coal sector in the state and for all the miners who have really suffered for a very long time which has led to huge economic losses to the people and more importantly these people have suffered a lot in the beginning because earlier when the ban was imposed no steps were taken to lift the ban at that point in time. Only when this government came, steps were taken and we have put in a lot of hard work into this and we are happy that we are finally seeing results of this and as I said we are just a step away now from the final mining lease.”

On the demand to amend SOPs since the minimum requirement of land is not less than 100 hectares for granting of mining lease, the chief minister however said that the SOPs are being prepared in consultations with the Government of India.

“We (State Govt) cannot just make SOPs at our own will. Therefore, when we discussed these, discussions led to the point where the Government of India was not willing to reduce that and hence, we felt at that point of time if we continue to get stuck on that land issue or the size, we may not be able to move forward with the entire scientific mining process,” he informed.

“Therefore, it was a choice and a decision to take either to get stuck in that decision and not open any mine at all or at least move forward with this issue and then make amendments at an appropriate time. I am pretty much aware about the conditions and the demands of the mine owners. Yes, definitely it is a genuine one but keeping the current situation in mind we had to take the best decision and we felt it is better to move forward right now and then make amendments at the future date otherwise the Government of India was not willing to move forward at all,” he added.

With regards to the action taken against illegal coal mining in the state, Sangma said that his government has made it very clear that the law will take its own course against anybody who breaks the law.

“Now that the process has moved forward and now we are seeing that we are one step away from scientific mining to start, we will not see individuals now break the law and do things that are not to be done in an illegal manner,” he asserted.

Further, the chief minister informed that auctioning of the 32 lakh metric tons of already extracted coal is going on.