SHILLONG, Sept 29: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Thursday said that the process is on to start scientific mining of coal in the state.

Sangma told reporters that there are large numbers of individual miners who have already applied for prospective licenses, and about 15-18 of them have received it also.

“Some of them have also gone ahead and submitted their mining plans which will then get the approval from different agencies and then process of scientific mining can also start,” he said.

According to him, the steps have been initiated based on the Supreme court ruling in July 2019. “Let’s hope that we see some mining taking place. Although it is a complicated process but we will wait and watch but the process is on,” Sangma stated.