Deptt to approach village councils to act against illegal mines
Geology & Mining (G&M) parliamentary secretary, Dr. Imtiwapang embarked on a three-day ‘Inspection Tour of the Coal Mining belts’, of Mokokchung, Mon and Longleng Districts.
Speaking to mediapersons at Kumba Nu Ward at Mangkolemba during his visit, Dr. Imwapang said that the main objective of the tour was “to detect illegal coal mining and to ascertain the amount of environmental degradation caused by the mining activities”.
“I have observed more than 40 mining sites at Lakhuni and Mangkolemba areas, where as there are only 5 to 6 registered Licencees of the areas”, the parliamentary secretary said.
The department would be writing to the concerned village councils to initiate action against illegal mines, he added. Dr. Imtiwapang cited the ‘Nagaland Coal Policy & Roles 2014’, wherein it stated “26-Roles of Village Councils: (f) The Village Council shall strictly prohibit illegal coal mining within the village jurisdiction and extend full cooperation to the Geology & Mining department for prevention of illegal mines. ((f)) In the event of allowing such illegal coal mining activity within the village jurisdiction and failing to give their cooperation to the department of Geology & Mining in matter of revenue collection, the village council shall be fully responsible, which shall lead to suspension of all governmental development activities including withholding of the VDB fund’.
It may be mentioned that Nagaland Post had recently carried out a series of reports highlighting the lack of comprehensive policy to control the environmental damages caused by the coal mining sites and other factors.
Dr. Imtiwapang also pointed out that the “main causes of environmental degradation are illegal minings”. In this regard, he urged the village councils to offer their fullest cooperation.
The parliamentary secretary also made known that the G&M department has included in the policy programmes to carry out “Environmental Awareness” in all the mining belts, beginning this year onwards.
The parliamentary secretary was accompanied by OSD, O Koratemjen, mining engineer (Mokokchung I/c) T Semy and a host of departmental officials.