Shillong, Aug 4: Cabinet Minister and Khliehriat MLA, Kyrmen Shylla on Wednesday announced that he will not allow any illegal coke factories to operate in Khliehriat, as well as in the entire East Jaintia Hills District.

“We don’t encourage illegalities and we don’t encourage such illegal coke factories as well. In fact such illegal things should not be allowed as it only brings huge revenue loss to the government’s exchequer,” Shylla told reporters.

He said people need to understand that through these illegal activities the state loses the revenue and even the public loses their benefits.

Legal factories

For the legal factories, however,  he said the government cannot stop them from functioning since they have proper documents and are complying with the environmental norms.

“It will be difficult for the government to stop the operation of coke factories who have valid papers and who have complied with all the environmental norms… These people have invested huge sum of money… those who break the rules and are working illegally they should not be entertained,” Shylla said.

NOC to coke factories near residential areas

On coke factories near residential areas, Shylla admitted that coke factories should not be allowed to be set up near residential areas. But some have come up due to NOC granted to them by village authorities.

“There are already clear cut rules in this regard. However, I do not know on what ground they (some of the village authorities) have issued NOC to these illegal factories,” he said.

He said one of the reasons could be that the coke factories never mentioned the proposed sites to such village councils while seeking for NOC and that the headmen could have forgotten to ask for such details.

As a way to ensure that such lapses don’t occur in future, he said discussions or consultations should be held among the stakeholders to come up with a rule as to how many factories can be set-up in a particular area.

“Maybe through this people will be able to deal with the issue as such factories can only be setup upon receiving an NOC,” stated Shylla.

Illegal coke factories in East Jaintia Hills

His statement comes a day after hundreds of people staged protest against government’s inaction against the mushrooming of illegal coke factories in East Jaintia Hills district.

There are over 35 illegal coke factories operating in Sutnga Elaka alone.

The protesters demanded immediate shut down of such factories citing that they pose a serious threat to the health of the people as well as the environment.