Ensure proper enforcement of sand mining regulations: NGT regarding river Mahanadi
CUTTACK: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed authorities concerned to ensure sand mining on river Mahanadi is done as per the provisions and guidelines of Sustainable Sand Mining Management Guidelines 2016 and Enforcement and Monitoring Guidelines for Sand Mining 2020.
“The principles are to be enforced with new sand mining leases which are to be auctioned by the district administration in the future,” NGT’s East Zone Bench in Kolkata said on Thursday while hearing a petition alleging unauthorised sand mining by a lessee. The Sustainable Sand Mining Management Guidelines 2016 focuses on the effective monitoring of sand mining from the identification of sand mineral sources to its dispatch and end-use by consumers and the general public.
The petition alleged widespread degradation of the Mahanadi river bed due to unchecked sand mining operations by the lessee at Nuapatana under Tangi-Choudwar tehsil in Cuttack district. The petition was filed by Srikant Kumar Pakal and other residents of the area, and advocate Sankar Prasad Pani appeared on behalf of the petitioners.
The bench of Justice B Amit Sthalekar (Judicial Member) and Saibal Dasgupta (Expert Member) imposed environmental compensation of ` 38.28 lakh on a lessee for extracting sand without a valid consent to operate. The bench expected the lessee to pay the environmental compensation within three months, with Collector Cuttack being directed to recover the amount in accordance to the law on non-payment.
It said that a study on annual replenishment of sand may be carried out which would serve as a guideline for allocation of various sand mining leases and the quantity of sand to be permitted for extraction.