National Green Tribunal
Debashis Das vs State Of Jharkhand on 24 June, 2021
Item No. 01 Court No.1
BEFORE THE NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL
EASTERN ZONE BENCH, KOLKATA
(Through Video Conferencing)
Original Application No. 50/2021/EZ
Debashis Das Applicant(s)
Versus
State of Jharkhand & Ors. Respondent(s)
Date of hearing: 24.06.2021
CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE B. AMIT STHALEKAR, JUDICIAL MEMBER
HON'BLE MR. SAIBAL DASGUPTA, EXPERT MEMBER
For Applicant(s) : Mr. Somnath Roy Chowdhury, Advocate
a/w Ms. Aprita Chowdhury, Advocate
For Respondent(s) : Ms. Amrita Pandey, Advocate for R- 1, 2
and 6,
Mr. Surendra Kumar, Advocate for
R-3 and 4,
ORDER
1. Heard Mr. Somnath Roy Chowdhury learned Counsel assisted by Ms. Arpita Chowdhury, learned Counsel is present for the Applicant.
2. Ms. Amrita Pandey, learned Counsel is present for Respondent No. 1, Secretary Department of Mines, State of Jharkhand, Respondent No. 2, Deputy Director of Mines, Dumka and Respondent No. 6, District Commissioner-cum- Collector, Dumka, and Mr. Surendra Kumar learned, Counsel is present for the Respondent No. 3, Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board and Respondent No. 4, Central Pollution Control Board.
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3. The allegation in the original application is that the Respondent No. 7 and some other persons are carrying out illegal sand mining in River Mayurakshi in District Dumka, Jharkhand as well as in the sand ghats situated within Sukhjora Gram Panchayat and Govindpur Gram Panchayat in Raneswar area, P.S.-Raneswar, District Dumka, Jharkhand.
4. The allegation is further that the sand mining is being carried out by the use of machines etc. and without 'Environmental Clearance' and 'Consent to Operate'. The allegations have been outlined in paragraph 8 of the original application which reads as under:
"The sand miners are illegally extracting sand from the sand Ghats/sand plots situated within Sukhjora Gram Panchayat and Govindpur Gram Panchayat in Raneswar area, Police Station-Raneswar, District Dumka, in the State of Jharkhand despite of not having any mining lease in respect of the said sand Ghats. The sand miners are continuing the unauthorized mining activity from the aforementioned sand Ghats/situated within Sukhjora gram Panchayat and Govindpur Gram panchayat in Raneswar area, Police Station-Raneswar, District Dumka, in the State of Jharkhand without having any Environmental Clearance (EC, in short) from the competent authority upon compliance of necessary formalities prescribed under the EIA Notification 2006 (as amended up-to-date. Indiscriminate and unscientific mining activity in violation to the condition prescribed under sustainable Sand Mining Management Guideline, 2016 is obstructing the free flow of the stream of the river. The said wrongdoers are carrying on their illegal activities of extracting sand at the sand Ghats/sand plots situated within Sukhjora Gram Panchayat and Govindpur Gram Panchayat in Raneswar area, Police Station-Raneswar, District Dumka, in the State of 2 Jharkhand by using machineries like excavator, pokelane, etc. The said wrongdoers are carrying on their illegal activities of extracting sand at the sand Ghats/plots situated within Sukhjora Gram Panchayat and Govindpur Gram Panchayat in Raneswar area, Police Station-Raneswar, District Dumka, in the State of Jharkhand, beyond the limit as permissible under Sustainable Sand Mining Management Guideline, 2016 and /or under the laws of the land relating to environment.
The unscrupulous sand miners are carrying on their illegal activities of extracting sand at the sand Ghats/sand plots situated within Sukhjora Gram Panchayat and Govindpur Gram Panchayat in Raneswar area, Police Station-Raneswar, District Dumka, in the State of Jharkhand, close to embankment in as much as in violation to the prohibition of extracting sand by maintaining the buffer of safety zone (which is usually 1/5th of the width of the river) and thereby causing gross damage of the embankment of the said river. The same is causing serious threat of erosion and breach of the embankment.
Illegal plying of the overloaded vehicles transporting the illegally extracted sand from the aforementioned sand Ghats/sand plots situated within Sukhjora Gram Panchayat and Govindpur Gram Panchayat in Raneswar area, Police Station-Raneswar, District Dumka, in the State of Jharkhand causing threat of the life of the resident of the densely populated village in the vicinity.
The unscrupulous sand miners are carrying on their illegal activities of extracting sand at the sand Ghats/sand plots situated within Sukhjora Gram Panchayat and Govindpur Gram Panchayat in Raneswar area, Police Station-Raneswar, District Dumka, in the State of Jharkhand even in the ongoing monsoon which stared from 10th June and shall continue till 15th October, (each year) according to Sustainable Sand Mining management Guideline, 2016.3
The said wrongdoers never paid any royalty for extracting sand from the sand ghats situated within Sukhjora Gram Panchayat and Govindpur Gram Panchayat in Raneswar area, Police Station-Raneswar, District Dumka, in the State of Jharkhand. The unscrupulous sand miners are carrying on their illegal activities of extracting sand from the sand plots situated within Sukhjora Gram Panchayat and Govindpur Gram Panchayat in Raneswar area, Police Station-Raneswar, District Dumka, in the State of Jharkhand herein above without adopting any safety measure to control the air pollution and for dust management as required under Sustainable Sand Mining Guideline, 2016.
The unscrupulous sand miners are carrying on their illegal activities of extracting sand from the said sand plots situated within Sukhjora Gram Panchayat and Govindpur Gram Panchayat in Raneswar area, Police Station-Raneswar, District Dumka, in the State of Jharkhand, even without heeding to obtain any consent under Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 and Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974."
5. In our opinion, matter requires consideration as considerable questions of environment arise.
6. Issue notice to Respondent No. 5 and 7, returnable within four weeks.
7. It is not necessary to issue any notice to Respondent No. 8 and 9 as we are informed by the learned Counsel for the Applicant that Respondent No. 8 and 9 are only proforma respondents.
8. The respondents shall file their counter-affidavit within four weeks.
9. We, therefore, constitute a Committee comprising of following members to submit a detailed report:
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(i) The CPCB, Regional Office, Kolkata,
(ii) The Chairman/Member Secretary, SEIAA, Jharkhand,
(iii) The Chairman/Member Secretary, Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board and
(iv) District Magistrate, Dumka, Jharkhand The Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) shall act as the Nodal Office for all logistic purposes.
10. We also make it clear that when the inspection is being carried out by the Committee, the Applicant shall be informed and shall also be permitted to participate in the inspection. We also direct that the Committee shall carry out surprise inspection of the site and submit its detailed report on the allegation pointed out by the Applicant in the Original Application by the next date of listing.
11. We further direct that the counter affidavit and the report of the Committee shall be exchanged among the Counsel appearing in the matter at least one week before the next date of listing.
12. The Applicant shall provide e-copy/soft copy of the Original Application to all the Respondents within 48 hours.
13. List on 09.08.2021.
................................... B. Amit Sthalekar, JM ................................. Saibal Dasgupta, EM June 24, 2021 Original Application No. 50/2021/EZ MN 5