HT Correspondent
MARGHERITA, Nov 27: Lekhapani Forest Range officer Parishmita Neog and her staff on Wednesday morning apprehended five illegal coal mining labourers from the Tipong Forest Reserve area under the Lekhapani Forest Range Office of Digboi Forest Division.
Parishmita Neog said that these five coal mining labourers had entered the Tipong Forest Reserve area to work at illegal rat-hole coal mining, which our forest team successfully intercepted, apprehending all five of them.
The apprehended illegal coal mining labourers have been identified as Subedar N Sangma, Ajoy M. Sangma, Danen Sangma, Stik Momin, and Jaan Marak, all of whom hail from the neighbouring state of Meghalaya.
A case numbered LP/12 of 2024-25 has been registered at the Lekhapani Forest Range Office under the Assam Forest Regulation Act of 1891, and all five illegal coal mining labourers have been sent to judicial custody.
It may be mentioned that illegal coal mining is rampant at Namdang Colliery, Aaradhara, Tikak Colliery, and the Ledo Open Cast Project areas such as Nagchuri, Deep Mining, Malu Gaon, Ledo, etc., under North Eastern Coalfields, Coal India Ltd., Margherita. However, while Margherita’s co-district commissioner, Margherita MLA, Tinsukia district commissioner, Tinsukia police, and Digboi Forest Division remain in deep slumber, in the name of development, only daily wage coal labourers are arrested, while big coal mafias roam freely under the open sky.