In a historic moment for the state of Meghalaya, the 1st Scientific Mining Coal Block in Meghalaya at ‘Saryngkham-A’ Coal Mine, Byndihati, East Jaintia Hills District was today inaugurated by Meghalaya Chief Minister, Shri Conrad K Sangma through video conferencing with the programme held at Byndihati being attended by Cabinet Minister, Shri Kyrmen Shylla, Sutnga-Saipung MLA, Smti. Santa Mary Shylla, Executive Member, Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (JHADC), Shri Hambertus Nongtdu, Deputy Commissioner, East Jaintia Hills District, Shri Shivansh Awasthi, Superintendent of Police of the district, Shri Giri Prasad, other invitees and people of the area.
Addressing the gathering, Meghalaya Chief Minister, Shri Conrad K Sangma congratulated all concerned stakeholders including officials, mine owners, other mining lease applicants, the owner of this particular mining lease, namely Shri Dapmain Shylla of Byndihati who have all contributed in making scientific mining in the state of Meghalaya a reality while also stating that the last 10 to 11 years have been one of the most difficult years for a lot of the citizens of the state especially those who are directly and indirectly connected with the coal industry who went through great financial hardships.
Shri Sangma recalled that in 2018 when he became the Chief Minister for the first time, leading the MDA Government, the issue of coal mining ban was accorded top priorityby the government with the hard work in the last six to seven years having yielded fruits through the inauguration of the 1st Scientific Mining Coal Block in Meghalaya. “The journey wasn’t so easy.The journey wasn’t very clear.In fact, it was like moving through uncharted territory, not knowing what challenge would come up in front of us while we moved forward, what kept us goingwas to see that the difficulties that our people are going through, we must find a way to resolve this and bring back normalcy for our people and our citizens, and that’s what really drove us”, he said.
The Chief Minister also saidthat the process of ensuring that other applicants receive the same mining permissions and are able to start the mining in a scientific manneris on. “It is always complicated and difficult for the first one or two or three of them, because they are movingin uncharted territory, not knowing what challenges may suddenly crop up and delay the process, but now that there has already been somebody who has moved and seen everything, it is now going to be easier for others who are behind now to move forward, because they have shown the way, they have cleared the way and they have managed to now show to others that this is how we have to follow the procedure”, he said.
He also said that Meghalaya had many challenges, apart from the technological aspect, we have land rights and land holding systems which are very different from the rest of the country, and hencedifferent kind of provisions, different kind of challenges came up in order for us to be able to make this particular mining a possibility and hence it took more time than we expected.
Shri Sangma said further that with the inauguration of the first scientific mining,in futurethere will be many more that will follow and reiterated thatthe government will encourage others to also apply so that this can become a normal procedure.
Meanwhile, Sutnga Saipung MLA, Smti. Santa Mary Shylla in her address thanked the Chief Minister of Meghalaya under whose leadership the process of scientific coal mining in the state of Meghalaya has become a reality and expressed hope that the dream of transforming Meghalaya into a 10billion dollar economy by the year 2028 becomes a reality under his leadership. Among others who spoke during the programme include Executive Member, Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (JHADC), Shri Hambertus Nongtdu, Deputy Commissioner, East Jaintia Hills District, Shri Shivansh Awasthi and former Khliehriat MLA, Shri Justin Dkhar.
