Govt to take legal action against defiant coal miners

The government has threatened to take a legal action against a number of coal mining companies in South Kalimantan for violating mining and environmental laws, Kompas reported on Monday.

The threat was made by Minister of Environmental Affairs Muhammad Hattta following an inspection at a number of coal mine areas in the province on Sunday. The minister and his team found a number of violations during the inspection.

During his inspection, the minister and team visited several mining areas including those operated by PT Antang Gunung Meratus in Kendangan district, PT Kadya Caraka Mulia, CV Anugerah Karya Alam, CV Rahmat Bara Utama, CV Batu Agung Mulya in Simpang Empat districts.

Hatta said many coal miners who owned the mining sites he visited violated the mining regulation which required them to carry out a reclamation and reforestation on old mining sites.

Besides ignoring the reclamation regulation, many coal miners also did not have sufficient water treatment facilities, the minister said, adding that one of the mines he visited did own a treatment facility to process the run-off water from the mining site.

?The violations have seriously damaged the mining areas and caused serious pollutions,? he said.

Hatta said that he would soon issue an instruction letter to the local government to take an environmental audit against defiant coal miners. ?After the audit, the miners will be asked to improve their mining operations in line with the regulations,? he said.

The government could also take a legal action against those mining companies and asked for a compensation for the damages that had caused to the environment, he added. (*)