Shillong: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma informed that the Government of India has approved four mining lease and this will now allow the process of ‘scientific mining’ or ‘legal mining’ of coal in the state.
A meeting held in Secretariat between Central Mine Planning & Design Institute Limited (CMPDI) and Department of forest and mining with the Chief Minister of Meghalaya.
The Chief Minister said that the main objective is to work towards a plan for the reclamation of the mines. “So whether it is minor minerals or major minerals, as you’re aware that we have been working and there is a fund available with us for reclamation of the mines, and hence, this is a process which we want to start and we have been engaging with many agencies, but now, CMPDI which is a very experienced agency and the government of India agency is an agency which has vast experience in all these aspects. So we had a detailed meeting with them and we are working towards how we should move forward for this entire issue of reclamation,” mentioned Sangma.
Emphasising on scientific mining, Sangma said that the main hurdle for the process of scientific mining or mining to start in a scientific manner was the mining lease. The chief minister informed that he was happy to inform that about a week ago the government of India approved the mining lease to be given to four miners.
“So hence we have overcome the largest hurdle that we had for the process of scientific mining and legal mining, to start in the state. And therefore now once we have the public hearing and the forest clearance and the mining plan approved which are just procedural aspects, which we expect that in anything between 30 days to 45 days these approvals will be done,” stated Sangma.
