SHILLONG: Endorsing the State government official team’s clean chit to four giant cement factories operating in Jaintia Hills district, Meghalaya Deputy Chief Minister Bindo Lanong attributed unscientific coal mining as a major cause of pollution of streams and rivers in Khleihriat sub division.

It is an irrefutable fact that unscientific “rat hole’ mining has contaminated the water sources and bodies within the periphery of the rich coal deposited sites of Khliehriat sub division. Adding more woes was the scientific declaration that waste from cement plants was the cause of death of aquatic lives in Lukha river.