From Sudip Sharma Chowdhury
Guwahati: Large scale illegal coal mining has been taking place in Assam and North East coalfields during the last three months and Coal India Limited is incurring a loss of about Rs 30 to 35 crore every month. According to sources, a coal mafia in Guwahati is working with some persons from Assam and north-eastern Geology and Mining department officials to extract about 30,500 to 31,000 metric tonnes of coal every month.
The Kharsang coal area of Arunachal Pradesh is under the possession of Coal India Limited and no coal block has been allotted to any company for mining so far. Sources say, illegal mining and trade of coal is going on with the support of the district administration of Changlang (in Arunachal Pradesh) and Tinsukia (in Assam). In the paper, the cartel shows that coal is bought in Nagaland, and converted to Coke in Kharsang. A small quantity of coal is also procured from Margarita coalfields of Coal India Limited. Coke produced from illegally mined coal with fabricated documents is transported to different parts of India and sold at a premium.
Every day, more than 100 trucks carry coke produced in Kharsang sources said that coal India is suffering a huge loss every month due to extraction of illegal coal. A section of coal India Limited officials is reportedly part of the nexus. Activists of rebel outfits are also aware of coal trafficking in the eastern part of Arunachal Pradesh and regularly “collect taxes” from the coal cartel, the sources said. At that time, there have been some alarming reports from Assam where a pay list of lakhs of rupees to a section of Assam’s media houses and Shastri went viral in social media.
The development started with a sheet of exposed paper written as confidential, showing a list of beneficiaries among some mainstream media houses based in Silchar and Guwahati. The list, which was prepared on October 21, 2020, offers monthly contributions (protection amount) by truckers along with several satellite news channels (Pradin Time, Assam Talks, Prague News, News Live, NE Live) and newspapers (Nitya Barata, Jugsankha, Dainik Prastate, Navberta Theme, SamalIkal, etc.). It also added the name of Sanjeev Jaiswal (owner of news channel DY365), Manoj Nath (president of Guwahati Press Club) along with Cachar Police, Karimganj Police (in Assam) and Meghalaya police personnel along with some others. The Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA) argues that the cost of carrying ‘Kundli’ (coal) linked to payments to media groups can trigger huge repercussions among the common people.
In a statement, the forum has already expressed serious concern over exposure and appealed to all concerned media persons (named to the list) to effectively clarify their stance. “The paper goes viral in social media, including influential WhatsApp groups that will multiply viewer numbers within a short period of time, even the mainstream media can ignore the revelation,” said JFA President Rupam Barua.
