Shillong: In significant move the government of Meghalaya has decided to set up a group of ministers (GoM) to look into four-year-old ban by National Green Tribunal (NGT) on rat-hole coal mining which has been the source of livelihood for a large number of people in the state.

The ban, imposed in 2014, cost dearly to Congress in the recently concluded state assembly election.

While the Congress government failed to get NGT to reverse its ban, the National People’s Party used it as one of its poll planks and assured voters to get the ban lifted within 180 days if it was voted to power.

Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K Sangma, in a meeting  promised to study the current status of the NGT ban and to find the way forward.