SHILLONG, JUN 26: Khliehriat MLA and UDP leader Kyrmen Shylla on Friday said the state government is actively working to resolve the mining impasse, but stressed that the open-cast model cleared by the Centre cannot be applied in East Jaintia Hills due to local geological constraints.
“Now the government is doing the job. At what level, I don’t know, but the government is doing its job,” Shylla said, asking for time.
“We cannot expect things to happen within a few days, but we will give the government time. Let the government do the needful. In time, they will deliver and apprise us of what has been done. As of now, the government is on the job.”
He said Meghalaya’s coal deposits demand a different approach from other states.
“It is underground mining, but it might not be like in other states. We have a small seam, but we are ready and willing to go ahead with scientific mining as per the guidelines provided by the Central government. But it should be feasible in our area,” he said.
Shylla revealed that trials of open-cast mining had already failed on the ground. “Recently, they have given us open-cast mining. We have seen it and we have tried it, no doubt. We accept it and we have tried, but we cannot implement it. After seeing that it cannot be implemented in our area, that made us request the government to make some changes,” he said.
“Otherwise, if it had been feasible, why would we need an alternative? We would have done it,” he added.
“But seeing the condition, and that the existing method cannot be implemented, our people realised that this is not happening. That is why we went and requested the government to give us an alternative where we can do mining as per our area’s requirement.”
He said the ball is now in the government’s court.
“I don’t know what the next course of action is. The Chief Minister will be best to answer this. But our duty, especially for my people from East Jaintia Hills and the Forum of the state, we have done our job by submitting the memorandum to the Chief Minister on how mining should be carried out. After that, the rest lies with the state government and the court,” Shylla said.
