CUTTACK: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has ordered fresh inspection of Mahanadi river bed at Nuapatana under Tangi-Choudwar tehsil in Cuttack district to reassess the environmental compensation the lessee has to pay on account of illegal extraction of sand.
The NGT’s East Zone Bench in Kolkata issued the order after taking note of the report submitted by a joint committee constituted by it after a petition, filed by Srikant Kumar Pakal and another resident of the area alleged widespread degradation of the Mahanadi river bed due to unchecked sand mining operations. The committee had computed Rs 38.28 lakh as environmental compensation to be paid by the lessee.
But when the matter was taken up for hearing on December 16, advocate Sankar Prasad Pani appearing on behalf of the petitioners pointed out that the environmental clearance (EC) was granted on January 30, 2016. Therefore the Consent to Operate should also have been taken from that date. Hence, the environmental compensation should have been computed from January 30, 2016 onwards and not for a period of 490 days as has been directed by the committee, Pani contended.
A bench of Justice B Amit Sthalekar (judicial member) and Saibal Dasgupta (expert member) said, “In our opinion, this matter needs to be examined by the committee once again. We, therefore, direct the committee to re-examine the issue and submit a fresh report within four weeks”. The bench fixed February 7, 2022 as the next date for hearing on the matter.