Bhubaneswar: National Green Tribunal (NGT) Sunday reiterated its demand that a government panel should name stone miners who flout environmental laws.
The order from the tribunal came to the limelight in the latest hearing, when the bench did not find the affidavit from the committee formed under NGT orders. It asked the panel to submit the report again before the bench.
Earlier, the tribunal directed the administration to furnish names of the people involved in illegal laterite mining. The order was passed by the NGT after the administration told the tribunal that they have penalised the truck drivers who were involved in transporting the illegally mined laterite stones.
In the latest written order, NGT said, “On 1.10.2020 the Committee constituted by the Tribunal was once again directed to examine the various aspects as pointed out…of order of the said date and submit a report on the identity of the persons running illegal quarries and also as to whether or not the unavoidable Enviornmental Impact Assesment process had been followed while permitting Sri Jagannath Temple Administration to mine the area.”
The NGT earlier had claimed that the whole approach of the Khurda administration was an attempt to hoodwink the tribunal in order to protect the perpetrators of the crime. A committee formed after the NGT direction had said that at Jhinkijhari area in Khurda district all mines are illegal. It also had said that a few mines are dangerously abandoned.
The orders of the NGT into the matter came after a petition was filed by one Bidu Bhushan Harichandan alleging illegal laterite stone mining by rat hole mining method without following the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for mining and other enviornmental laws. It was said that 40 sites in Khurda have been witnessing illegal stone quarries in areas like Tapang, Anda, Jhinkijhari and others.
