National Green Tribunal
Sambhar Salt Limited vs Ministry Of Environment Forest And ... on 21 March, 2023
Item No. 3
BEFORE THE NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL
CENTRAL ZONE BENCH, BHOPAL
(Through Video Conferencing)
Original Application No. 94/2022(CZ)
Sambhar Salt Limited Applicant(s)
Versus
Ajmer Vidyut Vitran Nigam Ltd. & Ors. Respondent(s)
Date of Hearing: 21.03.2023
CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SHEO KUMAR SINGH, JUDICIAL MEMBER
HON'BLE DR. ARUN KUMAR VERMA, EXPERT MEMBER
For Applicant(s): Mr. Mahendra Singh Kachhawa, Adv.
For Respondent(s) : Mr. Dharamvir Sharma, Adv.
Mr. Yadvendra Yadav, Adv.
Mr. Om Shankar Shrivastava, Adv.
Mr. Rohit Sharma, Adv.
Mr. Gopal Singh, Adv.
Mr. C. George, Adv.
ORDER
1. The issues raised in this application are the encroachment within the area of Sambhar lake and use of unauthorized bore wells, degrading the eco-system, where the applicant impleaded the General Manager, North Western Railway Head Quarters, Jagatpura, Jaipur as respondent no. 6 with prayer to issue direction to North Western Railway (NWR) not to lay any new rail line in the buffer zone.
2. Learned counsel for respondent no. 6/NWR by filing the objection and additional document has submitted that nothing material has been disclosed against the respondent no. 6/Railway Department and there is just a simple prayer to restrain for laying the new rail line. The contention of the railway department is that the ongoing project of the 1 railway department, is for general public in the welfare state and could not be restrained by simply making a prayer without any cause of action. It is submitted that previously the applicant filed a Writ Petition before the Hon'ble High Court, Rajasthan at Jaipur as Writ Petition No. 14449/2022, which is pending sub judice.
3. The railway department is operating this route from last 95 years and now to meet the future need, doubling work was carried out in existing railway land and in Government land with due approval from the State Government. Under the project Gati Shakti two important National projects of railways namely (1) Dedicated Test Track New Line Project and (2) Phulera - Degana Doubling Project are in progress, in consultation with Research Development and Standards Organization (RDSO).
4. These projects are planned on/around existing railway line. The private land required for the project has been acquired. Most of the government land required for the project has also been allotted and project works are in advance stage. Phulera - Degana section is a part of main Jaipur Jodhpur route connecting two important cities of Rajasthan besides other nearby cities like Phulera, Degana and Merta Road. Seeing the increased traffic on this route and to reduce load on existing single railway line, Phulera - Degana Doubling project was sanctioned by Ministry of Railways, Railway Board vide Director Works-II, Railway Board's letter no. 2015/W-I/NF/DPR/DL/Digaru - Hojai dated 27.01.2016. Consequently, the doubling railway track is being laid at 6.10 m (i.e. 20 feet) centre to centre track distance parallel to existing running railway line which is in operation for more than 95 years old since British era.
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5. The Dedicated Test Track was sanctioned by Central Government on 12-12-2018., and declared as special railway project vide Gazette notification dated 17-01-2019. This project is an essential and ambitious green project of Indian Railway for research on train safety and testing of Rolling stocks. Alignment of the project was planned on Railway alignment between Gudha and Thathana Mithri Stations of Nawa Tehsil in Nagaur, where railway line was in operation for 95 years on this alignment. The alignment of this Railway line is passing through existing railway land which is approximately 2 Km away from Sambhar lake and the part alignment of the project known as Mithri loop and Gudha Small loop is passing through Khasra no 1 of Sambhar lake. A proposal for allotment of 51.8 hectare government land of Nawa village (not falling in Khasra no.1 of Sambhar Lake) and 88.02 hectare government land of Khasra No. 1 of Sambhar Lake, Nawa to Railways was submitted to Collector, Nagaur on 30-07-2020. Proposals were also submitted to land acquisition officer (SDM, NAWA) for acquiring a narrow strip of private land along the existing railway land of Gudha, Jabdi Nagar, Nawa, Mohanpura and Khardiya villages for the project. Private land required for the project has been acquired by land acquisition officer and physical possession of the land was given by Tehsildar, Nawa to Railways and work of the project is in advance stage. State Wetland Authority issued NOC on 16-5-22 for allotment of 51.8 hectare government land for the project and now allotment of the land is under approval of the State Government.
6. Railway has completed the embankment bridge work & track linking work between Gudha to Nawa, Nawa to Khardiya on the railway land where train was in air operations for 95 years. Gazette notification of 3 acquisition of the land for the last stretch of the project between Mithri to Gudha Rajawata on revised sanctioned alignment has been issued and work is starting soon. Dedicated Test Track project work between Gudha to Khardiya (Except Nawa Yard) (Out Side land of Khasra No. 1 of Sambhar Lake, Nawa) is under progress as State authority handed over the land of village Gudha, Jabdi Nagar, Nawa, Mohanpura & Khardiya to Railways.
7. By an application the respondents has filed the copy of the order passed by the High Court of Judicature for Rajasthan Bench at Jaipur in Civil Writ Appeal No. 14449/2022, were the Hon'ble Court heard the parties including the applicant and railway department and passed an order dated 24.01.2023 as follows :-
"The dispute in this writ petition is between the petitioner which is a Central Government owned Company and the Department of Railways and both are fighting with each other in the courts. On the one hand, the petitioner-company is seeking certain reliefs against the respondents, as mentioned in the prayer clause of the writ petition and on the other hand, according to the respondents, the petitioner-company is not obeying the instructions issued to them by the Government of India.
Taking a prima facie view of the matter and as jointly requested by the counsels for the parties, this Court for the purpose to resolve the controversy, if possible, at this stage, considers it appropriate to ask the Cabinet Secretary, Government of India, who is Incharge of all the Ministries as informed by the learned counsel appearing on behalf of Union of India, to look into the matter to resolve the controversy between these two departments and is expected to submit the outcome thereof to this Court within a period of ten days. Both the parties are directed to do the needful in terms of the above positively within three days from today so as to make the Cabinet 4 Secretary, Government of India enable to proceed in accordance to the above.
List this matter again on 06.02.2023. Till then, the interim order to continue."
8. On the basis of the above, Learned Counsel for the respondent no. 6 has submitted that since railway department is not proper or a necessary party and in view of the departmental meeting and consultation the matter has been finally decided and resolved and Hon'ble High Court has disposed the petition in view of the above terms and thus Railway Department is neither proper nor necessary party and it was not requirement to implead the Railway Department as a party respondent no. 6. Applicant has no objection to the deletion of the respondent no. 6 from the array of the parties accordingly the application is disposed of and respondent no. 6 is deleted from the array of the parties.
9. Railways are directed to ensure that works remain limited to duly authorized area only.
10. The alarming and disastrous situation of the Sambhar Lake was found and discussed by the Tribunal while disposing the Original Application No. 54/2015(CZ) where it was observed -
"The State of Rajasthan has also been guilty of completely neglecting the Sambhar Lake. It is surprising that despite the fact that the Sambhar Lake is rich in Flamingoes, migratory and other residential birds and other rare and threatened species Sambhar Lake the was not declared as Bird Sanctuary or National Park. In fact the responsibility of looking after Sambhar Lake has not even been assigned to the Forest and Wildlife 5 Department and it was rather left to be taken care of by the Revenue Authorities. In fact no specific responsibility has been assigned to any agency for the protection and management of Sambhar Lake for the last 25 years as the Rajasthan Lake Development Authority came into being only in 2015 who has been assigned responsibility for protection, preservation and management of all the Water bodies and Wetlands in the State."
11. Further in the Original Application No. 1020/2019(PB) vide order dated 18.03.2021, it was observed that :-
"5. We find that even though the problem surfaced five months ago, there is hardly any tangible action so far. During interaction, it was submitted that demarcation of the area into Core Zone and Buffer Zone is necessary. If it is so, there is no reason why it has not been done in the last five months. At least a tentative and interim delineation could have been done. It is also stated that some steps have been taken for removing encroachments and the remaining encroachments will be removed within next three months. This may require tangible monitoring and fixing of accountability with the seriousness required to deal with the situation. No effective action has been taken against the industrial pollution in spite of sufficient authority being available under the Statutes, including the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and the Environment Protection Act, 1986. We are informed that there are 500 illegal bore-wells out of which only 137 have been closed. We do not see any reason why all the illegal bore- wells have not been closed. We are further informed that sewage is also being discharged into the water bodies by the Local Bodies. This being a criminal offence has to be stopped forthwith and emergent measures be taken to prevent any discharge of sewage into the water body. For the illegal discharge of sewage and industrial pollution, prosecution must be initiated and compensation recovered on „Polluter Pays‟ principle. This is the 6 responsibility of the State PCB. Report of effective action taken in this regard be placed on record before the next date failing which coercive measures may have to be taken against the officer bearers of the State PCB. The State PCB must ensure that local bodies stop discharge of sewage. Action may also be taken for disposal of sludge and Sodium Sulphate waste. The sealing of the illegal bore-wells be ensured by the Collectors of the concerned areas viz. Nagaur, Jaipur and Ajmer.
6. A comprehensive Environment Management Plan may be prepared for preventing and remedying the damage to the environment. The concerned industries may be advised to adopt cleaner production approaches and encourage minimizing waste and waste exchange efforts. The Secretary, Environment, Rajasthan may oversee and coordinate action with all the concerned authorities at least once in a week."
12. During the course of hearing this Tribunal constituted a committee and after examining the materials they have submitted the report which deals with relevant matters with certain recommendations and actions are required to be taken by the State.
13. We find an unexplainable inactions on the part of State of Rajasthan.
Despite the issue of notice, constitution of a committee including the State representative and senior officers of the State, none responded in this petition and none has filed the reply on behalf of the State or the State PCB.
14. The memo of parties reveals that the Chief Secretary, State of Rajasthan, Principal Secretary, Department of Revenue, Member Secretary, Rajasthan PCB, State Wetland Authority, District Collector Nagaor, Ajmer and Jaipur are the parties but none has filed the reply. 7
15. It seems that the Law Department of the State and also the concerned department are either inactive or have no role in the matter of filing the reply for State which may adversely affect the interest of the State.
16. Since, the matter relates intrinsically to the department of Environment also we deem just and proper to direct the applicant to implead Principal Secretary (Environment) as a respondent being proper and necessary party and also responsible department for the implementation of Environment Rules.
17. Though the representative of the Chief Secretary of the State (representative) was member of the Joint Committee, we direct the office to send the copy of the joint committee report to the Chief Secretary for directing the concerned Departments to file the replies with regard to the issue raised in this application and also to ensure that the recommendations submitted by the joint committee as well as other pending reports with the Government and the directions issued by the Principal Bench of this Tribunal in matters mentioned earlier must be strictly implemented, acted upon. Area of the Sambhar Lake must be identified, demarcated and protected and there should not be any further encroachment. In case reply is not filed before the date of listing, the Chief Secretary is further requested to direct the Secretary of concerned department to remain present during the proceedings through video conferencing on the next date of listing.
18. Learned Counsel for the MoEF&CC has submitted that the reply of the departments could not be uploaded due to technical reasons. The reply may be uploaded and filed within the short time. Copy of the reply/objection/response filed by the parties may be exchanged. 8
19. Learned Counsel for the applicant raised the issue of flow of water in the river which can be considered on the next date of hearing with latest documents /available on record. In the meantime respondents are directed to submit their reply separately.
List it on 19th April, 2023.
Sheo Kumar Singh, JM Dr. Arun Kumar Verma, EM 21st March, 2023 O.A. No. 94/2022(CZ) PN 9