The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed a committee comprising the Keonjhar district Collector and the Anandpur Divisional Forest Officer to conduct an inquiry into the alleged illegal laterite mining in 29.90 acres of land in Madanpur under Ghashipura Tehsil for long.
The NGT passed the order on a petition filed by Sudhansu Sekhar Kuanr and Sambit Ranjan Kuanr of Madanpur village. The petitioners sought the intervention of the NGT against destruction of forest and environment in the area due to the illegal mining.
They also apprised the NGT that the illegal mining has also adversely affected the agriculture land and obstructed the flow of water, used for irrigation, to agriculture fields.
The petitioners further alleged that around 100 acres of cashew forestland, on which the usufruct rights were granted earlier to tribal and marginalised communities under the Economic Rehabilitation of Rural Poor(ERRP) in the village around 30 years back, are now being mined out and quarried by stone mafias since 2002. The villagers have many times complained to the Tehsildar in this regard, but to no avail.
Taking the petition into consideration, the tribunal has constituted the aforesaid committee to make a on-the-spot inquiry to find out if the allegations are true and what action has been taken or proposed in respect of the illegal mining.
Petitioners’ councel Sankar Prasad Pani informed that the committee has also been asked to file a status report before the NGT within a period of one month.
The NGT has posted the matter to May 5 for consideration of the report to be submitted by the committee. Besides, the tribunal has also issued notices to Secretaries of the Forest and Environment and the Revenue Departments, Member Secretary of the State Pollution Control Board, Keonjhar SP and the Ghashipura Tehsildar to file their responses by May 5, informed Pani.
