CUTTACK: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has disposed of a petition that had sought its intervention against grant of permit to a firm for operating at Mirigini stone quarry situated within one km radius of Kuldhia wildlife sanctuary under Nilagiri block in Balasore district.
Tehsildar of Nilagiri had issued the quarry permit in favour of M/S Subarnarekha Port Private Ltd. Sukanta Behera of Rajbrahmapur had filed the petition and was represented by advocate Sankar Prasad Pani.
The NGT’s East Zone bench in Kolkata disposed of the petition on Monday after a joint committee constituted by it to examine the allegations submitted a report stating no consent to establish or consent to operate was obtained from Odisha State Pollution Control Board and the proposed stone quarry has not started any extraction of stone/mining activities till date.
However, the bench of B Amit Sthalekar (judicial member) and Arun Kumar Verma (expert member) said, “We, therefore, dispose of the application with a direction to the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA), Odisha to consider all the facts noted in the committee’s report with regard to site specifications, while considering the proposal of M/S Subarnarekha Port Private Ltd for grant of environmental clearance.”
As per the report submitted by the joint committee, the mining area of Mirigini stone quarry is spread over 2.549 hectare. The nearest authorised human habitation from the alleged quarry is 220 metre on the west and 140 metre on south east. The Salabandha hamlet is 730 metre on the south west.
There are anganwadi centres at 320 metre on the south west and 390 metre south of the stone quarry. An UP School and urban health and wellness centre are located 780 metre and 750 metre respectively from the stone quarry.