SHILLONG, Aug 23 � A day after Meghalaya Deputy Chief Minister Bindo Lanong said there would be no blanket ban on rat-hole mining, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma today said it would be premature to comment on a draft that is being fine-tuned.
Lanong, who holds the Mining and Geology portfolio, said yesterday that the draft mining policy has proposed that rat-hole mining should continue, albeit with incorporation of some safeguards related to environment and miners themselves. He also said that the Mining and Geology Department has done its work and the drafted policy is lying with the Chief Minister�s Secretariat for the past four months for final approval.
Sangma today refuted the claim and said that the draft policy is not lying with his Secretariat but is being worked upon for final approval. �That the file is lying in the Chief Minister�s Secretariat is not the correct picture. It is being worked upon so that it can be approved,� Sangma said.
