Missing labourers draw Tribunal’s ire

Shillong, January 24: Pulling up the Meghalaya government over its lackadaisical attitude on the issue of missing miners in the state, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Friday directed that it should submit the final report about the fifteen miners who went missing 2012 by April 4, the date fixed for the Tribunal next hearing.

Castigating the Meghalaya over the issue, the Tribunal which sat in the Meghalaya high court premises said in its directive said,   “The fate of human beings cannot be that of cattle… The truth must come out.”

The Tribunal was chaired by Justice MS Nambiar as the judicial member and Ranjan Chatterjee, former Meghalaya chief secretary, as the executive member.

While expressing shock over the missing miners’ issue, the Tribunal said that the Meghalaya Government and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) “can’t wash their hand off” from finding out the truth about the disappearance of the coal miners in the 2012 coal mishap in South Garo hills district.

The Meghalaya High Court filed a sou moto petition: “Threat to life arising out of coal mining in South Garo Hills” on the incident holding the State Government, coal manager and owner, the Ministry of Environment and Forest, Directorate General of Mines Safety and Ministry of Coal respondents in the case. The case was subsequently transferred to the NGT.

The role of the NDRF in the search and rescue operation also came in for scathing criticism as the  Tribunal and ordered the Assistant Commandant, Officer in-charge of NDRF to “complete the search” of the missing coal miners.

The Tribunal said, “If the labourers were there and they could not escape, their skeleton should be there in the mine and these should be taken out.” the tribunal said.

The tribunal also ordered the mine contractor to furnish all the details of its mining activities in 2012 and the miners’ “names and details of their residences” engaged during that period. The tribunal said that these details should be furnished before the tribunal in the next hearing and “any violation would be seriously viewed warranting stringent action.”

Moreover, the tribunal ordered the Meghalaya Government that the names of six miners, which it has in its possession, must be given wide circulation through newspaper advertisement in Assam, as they belonged to Assam’s Dhubri district.

“If the said labourers are alive, they themselves or if they are not alive, their dependents may appear,” the Tribunal said while giving its directive.

The Tribunal further said that the Amicus Curie of the Meghalaya High Court (who was absent today during the hearing) be present during the next hearing and in the event of her inability, the tribunal said a new amicus curie should be appointed. – By Our Reporter