Meghalaya government has appealed to the Supreme Court to allow transportation of extracted coal in the state up to January 31.
Deputy Chief Minister, Preston Tynsong informed while talking to reporter after the state cabinet meeting in Shillong.
Though the Supreme Court had earlier allowed transportation upto January 31, but it banned the transportation on Tuesday till February 19 because of failure of the state government to curb illegal coal mining.
Tynsong said that the cabinet also discussed about the ongoing rescue operation to trace the trapped miners in East Jaintia Hills district.
“We discussed about the rescue operation in the Cabinet and the chief minister and home minister have apprised about the latest situation as far as operation is concerned. The operation is still on as of today.
“In the next few days, the district administration and the concerned department will sit with a number of experts engaged for the operation. They have tried their best and they are doing it till today. Let us see for how many more days.
“Till this moment the experts are still on the job. Until and unless we get their views from experts we cannot say anything,” he said.
“Once we get views from experts, then we will accordingly file affidavit (in Supreme Court),” he said. The miners have been trapped since December 13 last year.
The Supreme Court earlier directed that rescue operation should continue till trapped miners are found dead or alive.