Security Guards allows Coal thieves to steal coal from the restricted colliery areas of NEC

Security personnel and guards who were hired by North Eastern Coalfields( NEC) Collieries Coal India Ltd to keep an eye on those who enter illegally and extract coal from restricted colliery areas have been caught collecting money from coal thieves in exchange for allowing them to enter the colliery to steal coal.

This is not a new issue, as the management of NEC is fully invoked as many times security personnel and guards are caught red-handed, but they are suspended for a few days, which several quests have complained about.

Activists in the Margherita region have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Coal Minister Dr Prahlad Joshi, pleading with them to protect NEC from vested interests, as it is the only living industry in the 124-member Margherita Constituency under Tinsukia district, and to extract coal through a scientific underground process, as open cast mining is harmful, hazardous, and pollutes the environment, posing a threat to flora and fauna.

On June 2020, North Eastern Coalfields Coal India Limited Margherita will cease all coal production due to environmental concerns, which the Union Government has given the green light for, which was inaugurated this year on March 26th by Union Minister of Coal and Parliamentary Affairs Dr Prahlad Joshi and Assam Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma, but other NEC collieries such as Tirap, Baragolai, Namdang, Tipong, and Ledo OCP coal production has been halted, while illegal coal production has risen in the halted collieries, leaving NEC Coal India Ltd Margherita, the Assam government, and the Tinsukia District Administration in a deep slumber.

Giant Excavators, JCB, and Poklane are illegally extracting coal from the famous Patkai Highlands, which are bordered by Myanmar and China's hills.

800 years ago, Chaolung Sukapha, founder of the Ahom Dynasty and Great Assam, crossed the Patkai Hills and built the first Ahom Capital at Rongpur (Sibsagar), but the famous Patkai Hills shall  become barren land in a few years due to illegal coal production by a few vested interest people in this area.