SHILLONG: Expressing concern over the unscientific rat hole mining prevalent in the State especially in Jaintia Hills, Deputy Chief Minister In-charge Mining, Bindo M Lanong, said the State Governm

“We would not allow any miners to leave the land where unscientific rat hole mining has been carried out without refilling it. The Government would ensure that this is being implemented in its true spirit since it is a matter of life and death for the people residing in those areas,” Lanong said while speaking to reporters on Tuesday.

He said that the Government would also encourage planting of trees in the all those areas where mining activities takes place, while adding that this is the only way to preserve the greenery of the mining zones.

SHILLONG: The State Health Department through the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) is all set to conduct the Measles Catch-Up Campaign targeting to provide mass vaccination to more than 6 lakhs children (from 9 months of age to 10 years) covering 93-99 per cent of the population especially in the rural areas of the state.

SHILLONG: The State Government-constituted high-level committee, which has been assigned the task to ascertain whether the cement plants in Jaintia Hills are mining limestone from forest areas, is likely to submit its report within November.

Shillong, Sept.

“We have made numerous visits to the cement plants to ascertain facts and alleged that the plants were located in forest land. In fact, most of the cement plants we visited are surprisingly located in the middle of forest land.” He added that the state government was taking too long in responding to all such complaints and not taking appropriate action.

JOWAI: Several traditional institutions under Narpuh Elaka have given green signal to the proposed limestone mining of Ms. Adhunik Cement Limited at Umsoo-Mootang under Thangskai village in Jaintia Hills.

Shillong, Sept.

The MoEF’s repeated attempts to blow the whistle over the issue met with inaction. This forced the Addl. PCCF( Central), MoEF NER to use his official authority suo moto by deputing his officials for spot verification and investigation of the matter during May and June 2010. The investigation report brought out glaring non conformities and deficiencies like NOC’s not having complete land description, boundaries, authentic maps etc to correlate and identify on the ground.

SHILLONG: The State Forest Department recently held a workshop on the theme “Definition of Forests and Conflict Resolution in the context of Meghalaya.” This year is also the International Year of Forests. For decades, forest land in Meghalaya has been diverted for non-forest purposes, mainly for mining particularly in Jaintia Hills by flouting the Forest Conservation Act 1980. The question is why the need for a definition now?

Pages