AsiaElec: Illegal mining deaths mar Indian efforts to cut back on coal developments

Illegal mining has long been an issue ignored in the developing world, but in recent months it has become a problem the authorities in India are starting to take more seriously, particularly with recent news from New Delhi that no new coal projects will be considered for the next five years.

Just this past week the High Court of Meghalaya in the extreme north-east of India became the latest branch of the judiciary in the country to request state intervention into suspected illegal mining practices.

The move came after a local man named Champer Sangma petitioned a regional state court claiming that two miners had died in an illegally operated mine in the South Garo Hills area of the state, but that the accident that led to their deaths had not even been properly recorded or reported.

As a result of the petition being filed, the state High Court last week asked the local government to check the claims and investigate whether or not illegal mines were operating as Sangma claimed.

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