A committee appointed by the Meghalaya High Court has sought a detailed inquiry into the disappearance of 1.3 mn t of inventoried coal and called for responsibility to be fixed. The panel, headed by retired Justice BP Katakey, said legal action over missing seized coal from depots also remained incomplete.

The committee calculated the shortage at 1.302 mn t, based on a difference between about 3.26 mn t recorded in inventories and 1.95 mn t accepted during physical verification by deputy commissioners. It said the state government, which the Supreme Court had held to be the fuel’s receiver and custodian, needed to identify those responsible.

The missing quantity represents about 52,000 truckloads at a payload of 25 t per vehicle. Transporting it at a rate of 100 trucks a day would take about 520 days, or nearly one year and five months, the report said.

The panel also reviewed missing coal found outside Coal India depots. Of the 37,449.53 t identified as missing, first information reports had initially covered only 4,141.83 t, leaving 33,307.7 t requiring further action. Although the state later said cases had been registered for the entire quantity, it had not supplied case numbers or investigation updates.

The report noted that no rat-hole mine had been closed or fenced despite repeated directions. An action plan for securing abandoned mine openings remained pending, as did approval of a wider plan to prevent, detect and control illegal mining and transportation. A fresh case at Sakhain village led to an FIR on September 3, but the police report did not mention seizure of equipment visible in photographs. The state notified a revised transportation procedure on September 14, while compensation had not been paid to the family of Durba Rai, who died after falling into an unprotected mine pit.