CUTTACK: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has ordered for payment of Rs 2.5 lakh ex gratia to the families of each of the three persons who died in the landslide at the Dankari stone quarry in Jajpur district’s Dharmasala tehsil on May 15 last year.
Talcher-based United Youth for Sustainable Environment Trust had filed a petition in July for intervention against illegal mining by way of over extraction of stones from beyond lease area of the quarry by the private lessee. Advocates Sankar Prasad Pani and Ashutosh Padhy made submissions on behalf of the Trust.
The final order on the petition was uploaded on the NGT website on Thursday. While disposing of the petition, the bench of B Amit Sthalekar (Judicial Member) and Arun Kumar Verma (Expert Member) directed the state government to pay ex gratia amount of Rs 2,50,000 each to the three persons within a period of one month. “The payment of ex gratia shall be without prejudice to any claims which may be raised by the family of the deceased as per law,” the bench specified.
The bench also on the basis of the affidavit filed by the deputy director of mines (Jajpur) directed the state authorities to recover from the lessee Rs 3.57 crore towards environmental compensation and Rs 3.81 crore for over extraction of black stone from the quarry within two months.
The bench noted that the tehsildar and deputy director of mines had confirmed in their affidavits that three dead bodies buried under the debris were recovered from the site.