CUTTACK: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has ordered for immediate halt to illegal sand mining activities in the Brahmani at Uttarpratap under Dharmasala tehsil in Jajpur district. The NGT’s East zone bench in Kolkata on Monday also constituted an expert committee to assess within a month the damage caused to the environment due to illegal sand mining.
Alok Malik and four other residents of the nearby locality had sought the tribunal’s intervention against sand mining in excess of the permissible limit by a private operator.
The petitioners’ counsel, Sankar Prasad Pani, also alleged before the Tribunal that the private operator was using a mechanical excavator to carry out sand mining even during the monsoon. “Use of the machine is contrary to Sustainable Sand Mining Management Guidelines, 2016 and Enforcement and Monitoring Guidelines for Sand Mining, 2020,” Pani submitted.
The Tribunal said the matter requires consideration and issued notices to the district collector (Jajpur), principal secretary water resources department, member secretary of Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) and member secretary, State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA). The bench of Justice B.Amitsthalekar (Judicial Member) and Justice Saibal Dasgupta (Expert Member) further said, “Considering the allegations made in the petition we deem it appropriate to constitute a committee to probe the allegations made with respect to illegal sand mining in the district Jajpur, Odisha”.
The bench also said, “The committee shall submit its report within a month with regards to illegal sand mining as alleged in the petition, damage caused to the environment, assess the environmental compensation and the penalty to be imposed on those involved in illegal sand mining as well as loss of revenue/royalty to the government exchequer due to excess sand mining”.
While posting the matter to September 27, the bench further said, “As an interim measure, we direct the district collector, Jajpur to ensure that all illegal sand mining activities going on in violation of the environmental laws, are ceased forthwith until further orders”.
