Who will feel the heat of coal smuggling?

MARGHERITA: Wanna dig out money? Come to Margherita and see how the land of black gold had turned into a den of coal mafias. 

Despite the country wide ban on coal mining in force, a section of smugglers has been at work with direct or indirect support by police and forest officials' not to speak of the powerful political leaders these days. 

These are more or less of what Chatra Mukti Sangram Samity leaders in Tinsukia said on Friday.

Addressing a press conference, the  KMSS student wing leader Lakhyajyoti Gogoi said defying the apex court order coal  worth ₹4 crore is being illegally extracted and sent from Margherita on every passing day. 

Apart from the denuding the forest areas, the ongoing  illegal coal mining has been incurring loss of thousands of crores of rupees for the government. 

These activities, said Hazarika, has been continuing not without the knowledge of the police higher ups and forest authority.  

Gogoi said the smugglers have hired many workers from Goalpara, Nepal and Tamil Nadu to deploy in coal extraction in Tinkupani, Guldini, Paharpuri Phaneng, Lalpahar, Makumpani, Namtok to keep smuggling coal. 

With glaring evidence the student leader filed a complaint before the Lekhapani police station on November 19. But of no avail. 

“It suggests both direct and indirect patronage of the police in this nefarious coal smuggling. We demand immediate police action failing which we are bound go for a massive agitation,” said Gogoi.