SHILLONG | Jan 03, 2017: A team of Central Mine Planning and Design Institute (CMPDI) based in Ranchi will visit the State from January 10-14 to understand the ground reality on mining in Meghalaya.

When contacted, government officials said they were not aware of the visit.
D.N Prasad, Advisor (Projects) to the Ministry of Coal, confirmed over phone from Delhi about the visit of the expert team. He said the team wants to understand the nature of mining activities in Meghalaya and once it is done, a follow-up on the pending issues related to mining can be addressed.

The team is expected to visit several mines in Jaintia Hills to have a firsthand knowledge.
During the past hearings, the NGT had suggested that Meghalaya can engage specialised agency CMPDI to carry out specific study on the impact of pollution on environment.

The team’s visit assumes significance following the recent meeting of chief secretary K.S Kropha with PMO officials in Delhi.

Besides the chief secretary, the meeting was attended by officials of ministries from coal, mining and environment.

The chief secretary said on Monday during the meeting with PMO officials, they had advised the three ministries to come up with their views on the request of the State Government to exempt Meghalaya from the purview of central mining laws and also regarding the finalisation of mining guidelines before starting mining activities.

“The process is that the Union Cabinet takes a decision on exemption of central mining laws in Meghalaya after getting views from the three concerned ministries,” Kropha said. The Presidential notification will follow the cabinet decision.

On the recent order of NGT to submit the mining plan at the earliest, Kropha said the State Government had already submitted the mining guidelines to NGT which is quite exhaustive.

(Source: http://www.theshillongtimes.com/)