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2022 (11) TMI 1522
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.... Block /YNR B-21 and 22 over area of 13.59 Ha vide EC dated 27.06.2016 for Respondent No. 12 and village Bailgarh, Tehsil Chhachhrauli, District Yamuna Nagar, project site at Khasra No. South Block / YNR B-2 over area of 28 Ha. vide EC dated 27.06.2016. 2. The applicant has annexed photographs showing the diversion of the river flow, in stream mining and use of heavy machinery in violation of the EC conditions, the Sustainable Sand Mining Guidelines, 2020 and recent order of this Tribunal dated 26.02.2021 in O.A. No. 360/2015, NGT Bar Association v. Virender Singh (State of Gujarat) and other connected matters directing as follows:- "1 to 26..xxx...........................xxx..........................................xxx 27. We direct all the States/UTs to strictly follow the SSMG2016 read with EMGSM-2020 reinforced by mechanism for preparation of DSRs (in terms of directions of this Tribunal dated 14.10.2020 in Pawan Kumar, supra and 04.11.2020 in Rupesh Pethe, supra), Environment Management Plans, replenishment studies, mine closure plans, grant of EC (in terms of direction dated 13.09.2018 in Satendra Pandey, supra), assessment and recover....
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....red in the light of factual report filed by the Committee constituted by this Tribunal. Since the report was inadequate, vide order dated 08.03.2022, the Tribunal requested the Monitoring Committee headed by Justice Pritam Pal, former Judge of Punjab and Haryana High Court, which has been appointed by this Tribunal to monitor compliance of certain orders of this Tribunal, in the State of Haryana, to cross-check the factual position by undertaking visit to the site, with the assistance of such of the authorities as may be considered necessary. 4. The matter was last considered on 19.07.2022 in the light of report of the Monitoring Committee dated 7.5.2022 finding violations against each of the PPs. The violations include failure to implement progressive mine closure plan, undertaking mining beyond the permitted depth, not taking measures for rehabilitation/restoration/ rejuvenation of the land of the area where mining was undertaken. Not developing green belt, not erecting necessary boundary pillars, not installing CCTV cameras, not maintaining road for transportation of the material, not showing GPS system on the vehicles used for transportation of the material. Illegal screenin....
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....ned as 82267 MT. Thereafter, the mining operation was suspended on 10.12.2021. The average production of boulder, gravel and sand has been calculated as 244048 MT/Year, whereas, the mining lease holder has been allowed the production capacity as 250000 MT. As such, the mining lease holder has produced the quantity of minor minerals within the permissible production capacity. The total lease period of the mining site is 8 years. During the visit, the Monitoring Committee has made the following observations: 3.1.1 Observations of the Monitoring Committee 1. No mining was being carried out at the mining lease area. The Mining officer informed that due to non payment of royalty by the mining lease holder, mining activity in the said area has been stopped on the directions of the mining department and mining operation was suspended on 10.12.2021. However, the site condition indicated that slight mining was being carried out in the area. Even, the fresh material screened by the nearby screening plant was seen by the Monitoring Committee. On the next visit of the Technical Expert of the Monitoring Committee on 23.04.2022, it was observed that the said screening ....
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....ttee from the Departments vide letter no. CMC/2022/836 dated 02.04.2022. 10. As per the Mining Plan submitted by the mining lease holder, it has mentioned that 3750 saplings were planted in the area for development of green belt of 7.5 m wide around the mining lease area. The Monitoring Committee during its visit to the mining site on 01.04.2022 and 23.04.2022, it has been observed that no green belt of 7.5 (1.36 ha) m has been maintained by the mining lease holder around the mining lease area and only few plants in two patches have been planted. 11. As per the Mining Plan, it has been mentioned that no screening / sizing facility has been installed at site, whereas, during the both the visits of the Monitoring Committee made on 01.04.2022 and 23.04.2022, one screening Plant has been found set up within the premises of mining lease area and it was found in operation on both the visits. 12. The roads maintained for transportation of production, have not been fully stabilized and no arrangements have been made for sprinkling of water on the road to suppress the dust emissions. 13. As per the Mining Plan, water tanker of capacity 4000 liter has been....
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....ntity of minor minerals within permissible production capacity. However, the Monitoring Committee during its both the visits made on 1.4.2022 and 23.4.2022, observed that one screening plant set up within the premises of the mining lease area was in operation and there is quite possibility that it is using the raw material from the said mining lease area. Therefore, the mining lease holder might be doing illegal mining in the mining lease area. Therefore, it is recommended that the Department of Mines and Geology shall impose compensation for extracting more quantity of minor mineral in the form of illegal mining as compared to the permitted quantity to be extracted as per the Methodology mentioned in order dated 26.02.2021 in OA no. 360 of 2015 in the matter of National Green Tribunal bar association V/s Virender Singh (State of Gujarat). 4. The mining lease holder shall implement progressive mining closure plan in the part of mining lease area where the mining upto depth of 9 m has been completed and steps may be taken for rehabilitation / restoration / rejuvenation of the mined area. 5. The mining lease holder shall plant maximum number trees on both sides of r....
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.... been mentioned 1239120 MT, for the period 09.12.2019 to 08.12.2020, the production of said product has been mentioned as 1174817 MT and for the period 09.12.2020 to 08.12.2021, the production of said products has been mentioned as 1190973 MT and for the period 9.1:2.2021 to 31.03.2022, the production of said production has been mentioned as 366280 MTD. The average production of boulder, gravel and sand has been calculated as 1200633 MT/Year, whereas, the mining lease holder has been allowed the production capacity as 1.3 Million T/Year (1300000 MT/year). As such, the mining lease holdet has produced the quantity of minor minerals within permissible production capacity. The total lease period of the mining site is 9 years. 3.2.1 Observations of the Monitoring Committee The Monitoring Committee visited the mining lease area in river area on 01.04.2022 and 23.04.2022 and the following observations were made. 1. On the day of visit on 1.4.2022; no mining activity was in operation. It was informed that due to regular flow of water from the last 02 months, the mining in the river bed area could not be made operational and the mining from the river bed shall be....
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....Technical Expert of the Monitoring Committee on 23.04.2022. The photograph showing mining done just at the start of the embankment of river Yamuna is mentioned as per plate 7. 5. Weigh bridge has been setup outside the mining lease area. 6. On the day of visit on 23.04.2022, it was observed that mining upto depth of more than 3 m has been done in the mining lease area against the permissible depth of 3 m. The photograph showing the illegal mining done beyond 3 m depth is also mentioned in Plate 7. 7. The condition of the road from where the mined material is transported is not good and is not fully stabilized. No plantation has been made along the roads (on both sides) provided for transportation of mined material to attenuate air pollution. The photograph showing non stabilized road without plantation is mentioned as per 8. The Committee could not check as to whether GPS system have been provided on the vehicles carrying mined material as no vehicle was found standing at the site. Even during the last visit made on 23.04.2022, no transportation vehicles were available at the site. 9. The mining lease holder has developed plantation in s....
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....rked within 01 month. 2. The mining lease holder shall maintain a barrier of 7.5 m wide from the embankment of the river and shall develop plantation in the said 7.5 m wide barrier within 02 months. 3. As per the record submitted by Department of Mines and Geology, Yamunanagar, the average production of boulder, gravel and sand has been calculated as 1200633 MT/Year, whereas, the mining lease holder has been allowed the production capacity as 1300000 MT/Year, which is within the capacity allowed by Department of Mines and Geology. It is mentioned here that the mining lease holder is doing illegal mining beyond 3 m depth, as such, the mining lease holder is extracting mined material more than capacity allowed to it. Thus, the mining lease holder is doing illegal mining. Therefore, it is recommended that the Department of Mines and Geology shall impose compensation for extracting more quantity of minor mineral as compared to the permitted quantity to be extracted as per the Methodology mentioned in order dated 26.02.2021 in OA no. 360 of 2015 in the matter of National Green Tribunal Bar Association V/s Virender Singh (State of Gujarat). 4. The mining lease ....
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....duction at the site on 09.12.2016 and the production of boulder, gravel and sand during the period 09.12.2016 to 08.12.2017 has been mentioned as 726006 MT, for the period 09.12.2017 to 08.12.2018, the production of the said products has been mentioned as 576576 MT, during the period 09.12.2018 to 08.12.2019, the production of said products has been mentioned 1056615 MT, for the period 09.12.2019 to 08.12.2020, the production of said products has been mentioned as 943786 MT and for the period 09.12.2020 to 08.12.2021, the production of said products has been mentioned as 1088637 MT and for the period 9.12.2021 to 31.03.2022, the production of said products has been mentioned as 460230 MTD. The average production of boulder, gravel and sand has been calculated as 885374 MT/Year, whereas, the mining lease holder has been allowed the production capacity as 1.1 Million T/Year. As such, the mining lease holder has produced the quantity of minor minerals within permissible production capacity. The total lease period of the mining site is 9 years. The production record submitted by the Department of Mines & Geology, Yamunanagar vide letter No. Mining/Admin/Ynr/1914 dated 29.4.2022 is....
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....he mining lease holder had diverted the flow of River Yamuna by laying of layer of sand in the lease area to extract the more quantity of sand from the lease area. 11. The condition of the flow of River water in between the patches of the sand / gravel heaps indicate that the mining lease holder might be doing in-stream mining using heavy machinery during the odd hours. The photograph taken on 01.04.2022 and 23.04.2022 showing the patches of sand / gravel heaps in between flow of river are mentioned as Plates 11 and 12, respectively. 3.3.2 Specific recommendations of the Monitoring Committee w.r.t river mining site at village Pobari, Tehsil Radaur, District Yamunanagar 1. The mining lease holder shall erect adequate number of boundary pillars around the mining lease site and coordinates on all the boundary pillars may be marked within 01 month. 2. As per the Mining Plan, the mining lease holder has to leave a barrier of 7.5 m wide from the boundary of mining lease area. The mining lease holder has not left a barrier of 7.5 m wide from the mining area boundary. Therefore, it is recommended that mining lease holder shall maintain a barrier of 7.5 w....
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....ny site found to be indulged in irregularity. 2. Strict vigilance, surveillance and frequent raids are required to control the illegal mining. In other case, it would have been appropriate to recommend constitution of enforcement wing comprising of officers from Department of Police, Department of Geology and District Administration. However, keeping in view the given situation, pulls and pressure at District Level, this enforcement wing may not be succeeded in achieving the object of its creation. It is learnt that previously there was enforcement committee reporting directly to the Director of Mines and Geology, which was functioning very effectively in the past. The said committee did surveillance/ raids from time to time and was able to control illegal mining and created terror to the law breakers. It seems that the said enforcement committee is now not in existence. However, to curb illegal mining in the mining sites, the Deputy Commissioner, Yamunanagar has deployed the officers like BDPO of concerned area, SDO, HSPCB, RFO of concerned area, SDO, Water Services Division, SDO, B& R, SHO of concerned area and mining inspector of the area etc. The prevailing si....
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....Geology shall provide Geo-fencing on the mining lease area within 03 months. 9. The mining lease holder shall provide advanced technological GPS on all the vehicles deployed for transportation of mined material so that their movement can be tracked and be monitored by the Department of Mining and Police and Prompt action may be taken against the illegal mining operator. 10. In no case, mining of minor mineral may be allowed to be mined in night hours. 11. For monitoring illegal sand / gravel mining in the mining lease area, there shall be a provisions of checking transport permit, printing of transport permit on security papers, invisible ink marks, fugitive ink background and unique barcode system. The Department of Mines and Geology shall provide said documents to the Monitoring teams or District Level Task Force at district level. The Monitoring team deployed for checking of vehicles / trucks carrying mined material should be in a position to check the validity of transport permit or receipt of scanning them using website, mobile phone application and SMS. 12. The mining lease holder shall ensure that the vehicles used for transportation of sa....
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....screening plants operating in the area 5.1 Observations The Monitoring Committee during its visit to the mining sites in village Kohliwala and village Bailgarh of District Yamunanagar observed that there are number of stone crushers/ screening plants adjoining to the mining lease areas near villages Kohliwala and Bailgarh. During the visit of the Monitoring Committee made on 01.04.2022, all these stone crushers were fount not in operation due to nonavailability of electricity. However, during the last visit of the Technical Expert of the Monitoring Committee made on 23.04.2022, all these stone crushers/ screening plants were found in operation, but most of the these stone crushers have not adopted the following code of practices for control of air pollution: i) The stone crushers have not covered all the dust emitting points namely Jaw crusher / roller / crusher / screener etc. ii) The conveyor belts of most of the stone crushers were not covered with suitable material and no water sprinkling systems have been provided on the conveyor belts. iii) No telescoping chutes of suitable height have been provided at the end of the conveyor belts....
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....er flow, illegal instream mining, not providing weigh bridge at the entry of the mining lease area are clear violations. With regard to Respondent No. 12, apart from violations found in the case of Respondent No. 11, further violations are not installing boundary pillars, continuing mining even after termination of the lease, using groundwater transported through tankers instead of using treated sewage water. With regard to Respondent No. 13, apart from other violations which are common with Respondent No. 11, the said PP was found crossing the prescribed depth for mining. 7. In view of above serious violations, accountability has to be determined for such violations on polluter pays principle for restoring the damage to the environment. Compensation has to be fixed having regard to the nature of violations, period of violation, cost of restoration and financial capacity of the PPs in view of principles laid down inter alia in MC Mehta, (1987) 1 SCC 395, Sterlite (2013) 4 SCC 575, Goel Ganga (2018) 18 SCC 257, MC Mehta (2018) 18 SCC 397, Common Cause (2017) 9 SCC 499 and Goa Foundation (2014) 6 SCC 590. We find from the record that in case of Respondent No.&n....