Section 29 in Bihar Minerals (Concession, Prevention of Illegal Mining, Transportation & Storage) Rules, 2019
29.
(A)Mode of Settlement. - (1) The settlement of sand as minor mineral shall be done by public auction-cum-tender through e-bidding mode in favour of the highest bidder by the Collector/any officer so authorised by the State Government.(a)The State Government shall issue a notification regarding mode & detailed procedure for settlement of sandghats from time to time as and when required.(b)The highest bidder shall deposit 10% of the auction amount immediately after the auction, following which an in-principle sanction order shall be issued in his favour by the Collector/ any officer so authorised by the State Government.(c)The highest bidder shall submit the required documents within the prescribed time limit as referred to in the prevailing notification issued by the State Government in this regard, following which the work order shall be issued in his favour by the Collector/ any Officer so authorised by the State Government.(d)The successful bidder or the Government/ Corporation as the case may be shall submit a mining plan prepared for the respective sandghats and shall be approved by the Director or any person / officer authorised in this regard.(e)The successful bidder or the Government/ Corporation as the case may be shall obtain environmental clearance from the competent authority as per the prevailing Environmental Impact Assessment notification of the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Government of India and as per the provisions of the Environment Protection Act.(2)Restricted areas for sand quarrying, -(i)The quarrying of sand shall be prohibited within 300 (three hundred) meters on both sides of any railway bridge or any bridge falling under any National Highway/ State Highway and shall be prohibited within 100 (one hundred) meters of both sides of any other bridge. However the prohibited zone in respect of any particular bridge may be extended by the State Government through a notification in this regard, if so required for reasons of safety.(ii)No quarrying shall be permitted within 50 (fifty) meters of any public place i.e. Cremation ghat or any religious place etc.(iii)No quarrying shall be permitted within 5 (five) meters from both banks of the river.(iv)The quarrying of sand shall be prohibited within 100 (one hundred) meters upstream and downstream from any dam/ weir or any other structure erected for irrigation purpose.(v)Sandghats should preferably be located on the river side of embankment. For low embankment less than 6 metres height, quarrying should not be done within 25 metre from toe/heel of the embankment and depth of mining should not be more than 1.00 metre. In case of higher embankments, the distance should not be less than 50 metre and depth of mining should be maximum 1.50 metre and at a distance of 75 metre or more mining depth should be maximum 2.00 metre. In order to obviate the development of flow parallel to embankment, crossbars of width eight times the depth of mining pits spaced at 50 to 60 metres center to center should be left in the mining pits.(vi)The irrigation outlet shall be maintained at the same level as that of the riverbed and in no case the river bed level shall be permitted to be below the irrigation outlet level. No quarrying shall be permitted around the infiltration well/ intake well up to a distance of 5 meters.(vii)The extraction of sand shall be permitted only after obtaining a No Objection Certificate from the Water Resources Department in the case of rivers where from irrigation channels are out flowing.(viii)No quarrying of sand shall be permitted in any private land owned by any person unless the settlee obtains the consent of the concerned land owner /raiyat.(ix)No quarrying of sand shall be permitted in any area which the State Government notifies as a restricted area.(3)Maximum depth of Sand Mining. - The maximum depth of mining in the river bed shall not exceed 3 (three) meters measured from the unlined bed level at that point of time or the water level whichever is less. All such pits formed during the course of excavation shall be filled on a regular basis.(4)Fixation of Minimum Reserve Value. -(i)The minimum reserve value shall be fixed as decided by the Department.(ii)If no bidder turns up during the auction process on the fixed minimum reserve value, even after three attempts, the minimum reserve value shall be revised by the departmental technical committee on the basis of sand reserve in the concerned area, other local/ technical conditions and recommendation received from district level committee headed by Collector. A re-auction of the said reach/sand block/sand ghat shall be conducted on the basis of revised minimum reserve value after taking approval of the State Government.(5)Failure on the part of the successful bidder. - In case the successful bidder fails to deposit the required security deposit along with other payable taxes within the prescribed time limit as referred to in the prevailing notification of the State Government in this regard, his security deposit shall be forfeited and a fresh settlement process for the concerned sandghats through public auction shall be initiated.(B)Payment of Security Deposit. -(1)Every settlee of sand as minor mineral shall deposit the amount equivalent to 10 (ten) percent of auctioned / tendered amount as security for due observance of the terms and conditions of settlement which shall be refunded after the expiry of the period of settlement / adjusted with the last installment of the settlement by the Mining Officer (as defined in the rules).(2)Award of Concession and Signing of Deed. - The successful bidder shall be awarded the concession to mine sand for a period of 5 years. The successful bidder shall execute the settlement deed in form 'B' as prescribed in this rule or a form as near thereto before starting work. In case the approval of mining plan and the environment clearance have not been obtained, successful bidder shall obtain the same before the execution of settlement deed.(3)Mode of Payment of Royalty / Settlement Amount. -(i)The settle shall make payment of the settlement amount as laid down in the Tender Document.(ii)In case the royalty computed on annual basis for the mineral extracted exceeds the annual settlement amount, the settlee shall be liable for payment of excess royalty for the additional quantity as extracted in addition to the settlement amount.(4)Default in Payment-In case of default in payment of any installment within prescribed date, a simple interest at the rate of 24 percent per annum shall be charged.(C)Observance of terms & conditions of mining plan/ environmental clearance. - The settlee shall observe the terms and conditions of the mining plan as well as the terms and conditions laid in the Environmental Clearance pertaining to the concerned settlement.(D)Deployment of Machinery in sandghats. - The settlee shall follow stipulations enumerated in Sustainable Sand Mining Management Guidelines, 2016/conditions specified in Environmental Clearance.(E)Online Sand Portal. - The Settlee shall make sale of sand to all consumers (small, medium or large) either through online or offline mode. All transactions/payments, excavation, production / transportation, stocking details shall be captured through the departmental online real time monitoring system. Sale of sand shall be controlled by electronic documentation linked to a central documentation monitoring facility and all lessee shall upload a monthly progress report on the departmental portal without fail.(F)Installation of Weighbridges. - Each sandghat may have an electronic weigh-bridge, integrated with central server. However for adjacent sandghats, department may allow use of common weighbridge. Any vehicle found carrying sand without proper weighment slip/ e-challan shall be liable to be seized under the provisions of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 or the rules made there under.(G)Government's Right to undertake De-silting. - The Government reserves the right to take up desiltation projects, in such allocated mining blocks, to maintain the river flow, safeguard the embankments and habitations along the rivers on account of geo-technical and hydrological considerations. The department shall issue guidelines for disposal of sand excavated in the process of De-silting.(H)Removal of subsoil sand from raiyati land. - The settlee may remove subsoil sand from raiyati land after taking consent and adequately compensating the land owner. Such proposals shall be included in mine plan and due environmental clearance from concerned competent authority of MoEF & CC has to be obtained before starting mining operations.(I)No objection from Water Resources Department. - In case of lifting sand from any sandghat if any natural water course / irrigation canal falls in between the link road and the sandghat then the settlee may erect temporary structure for transportation of sand with prior permission of water resources department. Such application for prior permission shall be submitted by the settlee before the concerned Chief Engineer of Water Resources Department. If no decision is communicated in this regard to the settlee within one month from the date of application then it will be deemed that the concerned Department has no objection in the proposal.
