National Green Tribunal
Om Pal And Ors vs State Of U.P & Ors on 12 July, 2022
Item No.1 (Court No. 2)
BEFORE THE NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL
PRINCIPALBENCH
Original Application No.160/2022
(By Video Conferencing)
Om Pal & Ors. Applicants
Versus
State of U.P & Ors. Respondent
Date of hearing: 12.07.2022
CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ARUN KUMAR TYAGI, JUDICIAL MEMBER
HON'BLE DR. AFROZ AHMAD, EXPERT MEMBER
Applicant: None.
Respondent: Mr. Pradeep Mishra, Advocate for UPPCB
ORDER
1. Grievance of the applicants is regarding illegal sand mining at Khasra no. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 37 and 38 in village Pachagarha Khand1, District Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh by contractor Mr. Mumtaz Ali up to the depth of 15-20 feet in river bed of River Yamuna in violation of environmental norms by using restricted use of pokland machineries causing damage to environment. It is submitted that due to this illegal sand mining, the flow of River Yamuna is shifted from main stream towards restricted area within 600 meters in Uttar Pradesh resulting in submergence of lands of land owners of Uttar Pradesh towards Delhi.
2. Vide order dated 10.03.2022, this Tribunal constituted the Joint Committee comprising of State PCB, and District Magistrate-Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh) and directed the same to submit factual and action 1 taken report within three months. The relevant part of the order reads as under:-
"Having regard to the seriousness of the allegations, it appears necessary to ascertain the factual position in the matter through a Joint Committee of the State PCB, and District Magistrate-Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh). The State PCB will be the Nodal agency for coordination and compliance. The Joint Committee may meet within four weeks and undertake site visit and look into the grievance of the applicant. Factual and action taken report may be furnished within three months by e-mail at [email protected] preferably in the form of searchable PDF/OCR Support PDF and not in the form of Image PDF."
3. In compliance thereof, the Joint Committee inspected the area on 04.04.2022 in the presence of applicant- Om Pal and has submitted report vide email dated 25.05.2022. The relevant part of the report is extracted herebelow:
" During inspection it was informed by the representative of Mining department that sand mining permission has been granted in favour of Late Shri Fakir Mohammad resident- Mohammadabad, District- Jyotiba Phule Nagar- 244235 for a period of 05 years for total area of 16.183 in gata number 8m, 9m, 10m, 11m, 12m, 13m, 17m, 18m, 19m, 20m, 21m, 22m, 25m, 26m. of village Pachayra block-1 , 27m, 30m, 37m, 38m, 39m, 40m, 41m, 53m, 54m, 55m, S6m, 57m, 237m, 238m, 239m, 240mm of village- Pachayara khand-1, tehsil- Loni, Ghaziabad.
The joint team conducted the site inspection of the area in question in the presence of the complainant Shri Ompal to ascertain issues raised by the complainant with regards to degradation of environment and violation of environmental laws. Point-wise compliance status with respect to complaint is as follows: -
a. Complaint has been made by the complainant Shri Ompal that illegal sand mining is being done by the lessee Shri Mumtaz Ali in Khasra No. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 37 and 38.
It was observed by the Joint Committee that, the above mentioned Khasras come under the sanctioned lease area in favour of Mr. Mumtaz Ali. Mining work is being done by Mr. 2 Mumtaz Ali in his approved area, which does not come under the category of illegal mining. b. Complain has been made by the complainant Mr. Ompal that illegal sand mining is beipg done by Mr. Mumtaz Ali lessee in the mining area of village Pachayra Khand-1 by doing 15-20 feet deep pit-
It was noticed by the Joint Committee that a part of the sanctioned lease area is presently submerged and no pothole was found in the area which is dry.
c. Complaint has been made by the complainant that the work of mining and loading of sand is being done by the lessee by heavy machines-
It was noticed by the Joint Committee that the work of mining and loading of sand is being done by the excavator cum loading machine in the order of the Directorate's letter no. 414/M (Mining Policy)/2018 dated 21.06.2019 by the lessee.
d. Complain has been made by the complainant that due to mining by the lessee, the Yamuna River has shifted within a distance of 600 meters from the bandh-
In relation to the above complaint, it is to be informed that on the basis of joint investigation of Irrigation Department, Revenue Department and Mining Department at the time of lease settlement, the lease section has been formed as per the guide line of Irrigation Department. During the investigation by the joint team, it was noticed on the spot that the mining work is being done by the lessee within the same geo- coordinates in which mining permission is sanctioned. The boundary pillars of the approved mining lease are located on the same place outside 600 meters from pusta of Irrigation Department.
As per Joint report, complain made by complainant is baseless, copy of Joint report along with relevant documents is annexed as Annexure-1."
4. We have gone through the report. It is pertinent to observe that in the letter petition, the applicants had complained that the Project Proponent was illegally mining beyond permitted area and permitted depth by use of prohibited machines without written consent of the 3 applicants and without payment of compensation to them in accordance with order passed by Hon'ble High Court of Allahabad in W.P No. 3101 of 2010 titled Sripal Vs. State of Uttar Pradesh and others. The applicants have complained that pillars and cameras have not been installed and the sand mined is transported without weighing on any weighment bridge and without submitting weighment slip in over loaded trucks containing 25 cubic meters sand against 'rawana parchi' recording transported quantity as 12 cubic meters. The applicants have claimed that earlier the Project Proponent had illegally mined within prohibited area of 600 meters notified by Irrigation Department for which heavy penalty/royalty was recovered by Mining/Revenue Department. The applicants have mentioned that one person died in October 2021 due to drowning in the pit created by machine used for mining. Vide order dated 10.03.2022, this Tribunal had directed the Joint Committee to look into the grievances of the applicants but while submitting its report the Joint Committee has not looked into the allegations regarding alleged incident of illegal mining by the Project Proponent and recovery of penalty/royalty by Mining/Revenue Department, alleged incident of death of one person by drowning in the pit created by the machine used for mining and alleged requirement of written consent and payment of compensation under order of Hon'ble High Court of Allahabad and non-compliance thereof by the Project Proponent. The Joint Committee has submitted in the report that pillars were installed and the Project Proponent was mining by using permitted machine within the permitted area ruling out illegal mining by the Project Proponent but the Joint Committee has not attached any document regarding the mining lease, photographs of the pillars, cameras and weighment bridge installed and also of the machines used by the Project Proponent. The Joint Committee has not mentioned the 4 particulars of machines permitted to be used and actually used on the spot and has also not attached map showing tallying of geo-coordinates of the mining sites leased out with sites actually mined by the Joint Committee.
5. In these facts and circumstances, we consider it appropriate to direct the Joint Committee to look into these aspects and verify the factual position and take appropriate remedial action by following due process of law and submit further Factual and Action Taken Report.
6. Factual and Action Taken Report may be furnished within two months by e-mail at [email protected] preferably in the form of searchable PDF/OCR Support PDF and not in the form of Image PDF.
List the matter for further consideration on 11.10.2022. A copy of this order, along with a copy of the application, be forwarded to the State PCB and District Magistrate-Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh) by e-mail for compliance.
Arun Kumar Tyagi, JM Dr. Afroz Ahmad, EM July 12, 2022 O.A. No. 160/2021 AG 5