Assam: Margherita Congress Demands Immediate Arrest of Illegal Coal Mafia

Margherita, October 13, 2019:

Margherita Block Congress Committee members have submitted a memorandum to the Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines, Prahlad Joshi during his two-day visit to Assam’s Margherita and Arunachal Pradesh.

The committee has demanded that all illegal coal mining should be stopped and perpetrators be arrested. They have also demanded immediate eviction of all coal oven units set up illegally and those set up purportedly without Government approval, such as NOC of Pollution Control Board or GM DICC. They have demanded that these should be brought within the radius of 10 Km of the Industrial areas of NEC.

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Congress has also demanded to institute a High-level Vigilance inquiry into the affairs of NEC CIL Margherita as why GM and the Management of NEC CIL Margherita were lenient towards the organized coal thefts and large scale coal pilferage.

Margherita Block Congress Committee president, Basudev Chetry said, “A’R&T Company had established coal mines way back in the year 1883 during British rule, with its headquarters in Margherita. The then A’R&T Company had laid railway tracks to carry coal, tea, and timber.”

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He added, “After the Nationalization of Coal mines in the year 1973, Margherita became the Headquarter of North Eastern Coalfields Coal India limited with the increase of production and other infrastructural facilities in the entire coalfield area with the centre point at Margherita. But unfortunately, Coke Coal Oven units have been set up in industrial areas of NEC such as at Tirap, Tikak, Tipong, Namdang and Baragolai, where rat hole mining has tremendously increased with over 10,000 illegal miners entering the coal mine areas. They have extracted coal to supply it to Coke Coal oven units.”

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