RN Bhaskar
Even as this article is being written, rescue operations are underway to evacuate the 15 miners trapped inside a rat-hole mine in Meghalaya. The Indian Navy, Air Force and National Disaster Response Force teams have been working round the clock to save lives.
Belatedly, the government admits that the mine was illegal. Initial reports had government spokesmen stating that it was yet to be ascertained whether the mine was legal. The fact is that Meghalaya and some other Northeastern states have been known to engage in illegal mining for decades. Everyone just looked the other way. Even the Government of India, in its statements before the Lok Sabha, blithely stated that no reports of illegal mining have come in (see chart).
This was despite photographic evidence dating back to before 2012 from AP photographers showing the horrendous conditions of illegal miners. It was only after the BBC began featuring social activists that state leaders grudgingly began confessing to the existence of illegal mining in Meghalaya.
Even when the CBI began its investigations into the Saradha chit fund scandal in 2013, it had noted that almost Rs 1,000 crore had been invested in illegal mines in the Northeast. Suddenly, all reports about investigations into this area of operations stopped. Obviously, the returns on such investments would have been extremely lucrative.
Media reports have legislators on record saying that they used to own mines but stopped after the 2014 NGT ban — these include Vincent H Pala, Lok Sabha MP from Shillong, Kyrmen Shylla, the minister in charge of, among others, the disaster management department, Lahkmen Rymbui, the minister in charge of, among others, forests & environment, and, Comingone Ymbon, the minister in charge of, among others, the public works department. Pala has gone a step further and has demanded that illegal mines be regularised.
Logically, the owners of these illegal mines should be tried for their negligence and under the provisions that government illegal mining. In reality, nothing shall be done, because political compulsions are always used as an excuse for dragging on investigations, and not penalising any powerful person.
The clandestine political support for illegal mining can be easily ascertained from the Lok Sabha figures given above.
Note how, during the Congress rule, illegal mining became scandalous for politicians in Karnataka and Goa. Both states were ruled by the BJP then. This was despite the fact that illegal mining was more rampant in neighbouring Maharashtra (where the Congress was in charge).
Looking at the fines it appears that none of the vehicles impounded were ever auctioned. States such as Odisha are a good indicator of how high the fines should go. Fines have ranged between Rs 8,000 crore and Rs 60,000 crore, some imposed by the Supreme Court. Thus, even though illegal mining cases have been registered, most states have let off the culprits with very light fines and mere reprimands.
Even in the current case, the elected representatives have made these confessions only after they, along with others, were named in a Citizens’ Report prepared by civil society groups in Meghalaya and submitted to the Supreme Court in December by Colin Gonsalves, the amicus curiae in the case. The report lists Pala, four ministers in the Conrad Sangma-led government and seven MLAs — alleging these men and/or their relatives are coal-mine owners.
Given the past record as can be seen from the table, and the efforts by successive governments to let illegal mining continue, India has had to pay for this in terms of lives of the poorest of citizens — the hapless miners — and sometimes even security persons.
As happens in most such cases, the powerful will most probably be left off.
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