National Green Tribunal
News Item Titled "Punjab Has No Tech ... vs Unknown on 16 May, 2024
Item No. 20 Court No. 1
BEFORE THE NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL
PRINCIPAL BENCH, NEW DELHI
Original Application No. 222/2024
News item titled "Punjab has no tech mechanism to check illegal mining
says CAG" appearing in Hindustan Times dated 31.01.2024
Date of hearing: 16.05.2024
CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE PRAKASH SHRIVASTAVA, CHAIRPERSON
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ARUN KUMAR TYAGI, JUDICIAL MEMBER
HON'BLE DR. A. SENTHIL VEL, EXPERT MEMBER
Applicant:
Respondent: Mr. Divyam Nandrajog, Asst. AG with Ms. Surbhi Soni, Advs. for R - 1 &
3 to 5
Ms. Richa Kapoor & Ms. Atika Singh, Advs. for Punjab PCB
ORDER
1. In this original application, registered suo motu, the issue of failure of Punjab Government and its agencies to use tech mechanism like geo- tagging and unmanned aerial vehicle, etc. to detect and check illegal mining in the State is involved.
2. In terms of directions of the Tribunal, the reply has been filed by Chief Engineer, Mines & Geology, Punjab, Chandigarh on behalf of Respondent No. 1 stating as under:
"xxx ..................................xxx.....................................xxx
4. It is respectfully submitted that the District Survey Reports has been prepared in the State as per Enforcement & Monitoring Sand Mining Guideline, 2020 issued by MOEF&CC, in which all the identified potential riverbed deposits have been geo-tagged and geo-fenced through DGPS Survey and are available in Public Domain at https://minesandgeolooy.punjab.gov.in/cms/dsr
5. That all approved mining site are again geo-tagged and geo-fenced by the department. Currently, geo-tagging or geo-1
fencing of mines located in the state of Punjab has already been completed and are also available in the public domain at https://minesandgeology.punjab.gov.in/operational-minings .
6. That for all the mining sites in the State of Punjab, pre- mining survey through UAV (Drone) has been conducted by the IIT Ropar before the start of mining operations. While conducting the survey, the adjacent area falling in 500 meter distance from the permitted area has also been included. This survey will be conducted again at the time of closing of mining operations to calculate the amount of material excavated from the mine to check any over extraction."
3. Though a plea has been taken that the Geo-tagging and Geo- fencing through DGPS survey is done and it is available in public domain but the full particulars thereof have not been disclosed.
4. On perusal of the record, we find that the Punjab State Minor Mineral Policy 2023 has been filed as Annexure B along with the report of the Deputy Commissioner, Kapurthala dated 15.05.2024 which contains the following provision relating to geotagging of mines:
"Geo-tagging of mines -
Geo-tagging of the mine area will be carried out while conducting physical inspection as the boundary of the mine will be checked using the coordinates recorded in GPS device, and the monitoring team can check whether any mining activity is going on outside the permitted area or not."
5. We also find that the Annexure-I to the said Notification contains the mining site with valid EC and method of excavation permitted by SEIAA but Annexure does not contain any geocoordinates. It appears from the stand of PPCB in the report dated 24.04.2024 as if no illegal mining is taking place in the State, whereas Counsel for the Mining Department does not dispute that the FIRs have been registered against those involved in illegal mining. Hence, we direct the Respondent No. 1 to disclose full details of number of FIRs registered in different districts of 2 the State against the persons involved in illegal mining. Respondent No. 1 will also file a further report disclosing the details as to how the geo- tagging is done and the compliance of the provision of geo-tagging as contained in the Policy of 2023. Let the fresh report be filed at least one week before the next date of hearing by e-mail at judicial- [email protected] preferably in the form of searchable PDF/OCR Support PDF and not in the form of Image PDF.
6. List on 02.09.2024.
Prakash Shrivastava, CP Arun Kumar Tyagi, JM Dr. A. Senthil Vel, EM May 16, 2024 Original Application No. 222/2024 DV 3