GUWAHATI A Meghalaya-based rights group has accused the alliance government in the State of encouraging illegal coal mining in contempt of a Supreme Court order. The State government later claimed tonnes of already extracted coal lying around various mining sites needed to be transported to prevent the local environment from being polluted. Coal miners had in December 2018 told the …
It was the compensation cheque, for ₹1 lakh, that convinced Solibar Rahman, 64, that he would never see his 20-year-old son, Monirul Islam, ever again. Monirul is one of the 15 miners trapped in a coal mine barely 2 ft wide — hence called a ‘rat hole’ — in Meghalaya since December 13. Says Daly, “Today not even a tadpole …