NGT directs Andhra Pradesh to act against those involved in illegal sand mining
Vijayawada: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) directed the AP government to take action against persons involved in illegal sand mining or exploitation of mines and minerals, by launching persecution, imposing penalty and collecting royalty.
The NGT, Southern Zone, Chennai comprising justice K. Ramakrishnan and expert member Saibal Dasgupta, while issuing an order on Monday on petitions filed by Devineni Rajasekhar and T. Srinivas, challenging regulations and notifications by several departments on sand mining, said that no act of sand mining in the guise of desilting or dredging is to be permitted in the river, reservoir, lakes and pond beds.
The NGT directed the AP to conduct regular survey of sediment deposit on the water bodies before undertaking the work of declining and dredging as part of maintenance of these water bodies.
It ordered that the state follow the guidelines provided by the Union ministry of environment and forests and also the guidelines of Sustainable Sand Mining and Management, 2016 and also Enforcement and Monitoring Guidelines for Sand Mining issued in January, 2020.
The NGT directed the AP to have adequate control mechanism and monitoring mechanism on activities like mining/desilting/dredging by providing all necessary infrastructure including technical assistance. It asked for providing proper monitoring mechanism for transport of miners extracted from the point of dredging/desilting/mining to the point of destination to avoid misuse of minerals for unauthorised purpose. It asked for registration of vehicles permitted for transport and also installation of GPS facility in the vehicles.
The NGT asked the AP to set up a permanent Expert Appraisal Committee in each district for the purpose of carrying out the work of conducting replenishment study and for preparation of District Survey Report. It asked for installation of CCTVs in the places allotted or identified for dredging/desilting/mining so as to monitor the activities scientifically and to curb illegal mining.
