CUTTACK: Extraction of stones at Nishinta Hill and adjoining reserved forest areas in Dhenkanal district’s Gondia tehsil has come under the National Green Tribunal (NGT) scanner following allegations of illegal operations by a “mining mafia”.
The NGT’s East Zone Bench in Kolkata has constituted a joint committee to verify the factual position and take appropriate remedial action.
Talcher-based United Youth for Sustainable Environment Trust filed a petition seeking intervention against alleged illegal extraction of more than 20,000 tonne of stone by blasting and using heavy machines by the mining mafia. Advocates Sankar Prasad Pani and Ashutosh Padhy represented the Trust.
“Prima facie the allegations raise questions regarding environment arising out of the implementation of the enactments specified in the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010,” the bench of Arun Kumar Tyagi (Judicial Member) and Dr Satyagopal Korlapati (Expert Member observed and directed the committee to meet within two weeks and undertake visits to the site to look into the grievances of the petitioner.
The tribunal included in the committee representatives of regional officer (Bhubaneswar) of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, principal chief conservator of Forests (Odisha), director of Mines & Geology, Odisha State Pollution Control Board and district magistrates of Dhenkanal and Jajpur.
The petition alleged that illegal quarries and four stone crushers are operating in Raigada village under Gondia tehsil which is on the border of Dhenkanal and Jajpur districts. The petition had submitted photographs and newspaper clips in support of the allegations.
The bench posted the matter to December 20 for further consideration and directed for submission of an action taken report at least one week before that. It assigned Odisha Pollution Control Board to be the nodal agency for coordination and compliance.