The committee appointed by the Meghalaya High Court has sought a detailed inquiry into the shortage of 13.02 lakh tonnes of inventoried coal as it called for fixation of responsibility.

The committee also flagged the disappearance of 37,449.53 tonnes of illegally mined coal found outside Coal India Limited depots. FIRs had initially been filed for only 4,141.83 tonnes, leaving 33,307.7 tonnes requiring further legal action.

The panel said a detailed inquiry is required to fix responsibility for the disappearance of the inventoried coal, since the Supreme Court had held the state government to be the receiver and custodian of the coal.

Although the state later informed the committee that FIRs had been registered for the entire missing quantity, the committee noted that police station case numbers and the status of investigations had not been furnished. The state has become notorious for coal mining which has claimed several lives, particularly during rathole mining.

While mining, legal and illegal, is unlikely to stop anytime soon and there is a long journey ahead for the court or any other agencies of the state to able to control it or make it more scientific, let alone prevent it, one can only hope that its safer for the miners.