Sjachriel welcomes House's plan to expose coal problems

South Kalimantan governor Sjachriel Darham said that he welcomed a plan from the House of Representatives' Commission VIII on mines and energy to call a session to discuss coal-mining problems in the province.

"Please go ahead, if Commission VIII wants to question coal mining activities in South Kalimantan. But, if they should not be one sided when they discuss the matter," Sjachriel said in Banjarmasin on Tuesday.

He noted that members of Commission VIII had not heard his sides of the story behind problems of coal mining activities in his province, and therefore, he suggested the commission to learn more about coal mining policies taken by his administration.

As reported earlier, the commission would take coal-mining problems in South Kalimantan that it considered being environmentally unfriendly to the House's plenary session.

A deputy chairman of Commission VIII, Tubagus Haryono, said that the coal mining policies taken by the South Kalimantan government could endanger the environment because the administration did not require coal miners to conduct environmental impact management analysis before conducting their mining activities.

Tubagus said the South Kalimantan administration was only running after royalties or other levies from coal miners and did not care about the environment. He argued that such a policy would encourage irresponsible and illegal miners to mine coals irresponsibly. Many of coal mining pits in South Kalimantan were left unattended and uncovered by irresponsible miners, and thus they create environmental problems.

He called on related ministries, especially the Ministry of Mines and Energy, to tackle coal-mining problems in South Kalimantan. (*)