BHUBANESWAR: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has imposed an interim penalty of ₹ ₹20 crore on state-owned Rail Vikash Nigam Limited (RVNL) over two of its contractors lifting huge quantities of soil and morrum for construction of a railway line in Odisha without the approval of local revenue authorities.
In an order, a bench of NGT headed by chairperson justice Adarsh Goel said that pending final calculation of compensation amount as per norms laid down by the Supreme Court, RVNL has to deposit ₹20 crore with Odisha Pollution Control Board towards the value of the mined material, cost of the environmental services forgone forever, deterrent element and cost of restoration within two months.
“From the data available before this Tribunal, it is clear that value of mined material is more than ₹20 crores. The royalty collected itself is more than Rs. 3 Crores, which is said to be 10% of the value of the mined material which is said to be more than 1800000 cum. Thus, minimum value of mined material can safely be taken to be ₹20 crore. If deposit is not made, the district magistrate of Dhenkanal may recover the amount by using coercive measures,” the NGT ordered.
The NGT bench also ordered the formation of a joint Committee of Central Pollution Control Board, Odisha Pollution Control Board, State Environment Impact Assessment Authority and district magistrate Dhenkanal to revisit the calculation of compensation.
{{/usCountry}}The NGT bench also ordered the formation of a joint Committee of Central Pollution Control Board, Odisha Pollution Control Board, State Environment Impact Assessment Authority and district magistrate Dhenkanal to revisit the calculation of compensation.
{{/usCountry}}The NGT order came in response to a petition filed by social activist Sashee Bhoosan Patnaik of Keonjhar district who in 2017 filed a petition alleging that the contractors for the Angul-Sukinda railway project undertaken by the Rail Vikash Nigam Limited had lifted soil and morrum from forest land without any clearances from Centre as required under Section 2 of the Forest Conservation Act.
He further alleged that around 20 lakh cubic metre of soil was extracted in Kamakshyanagar and Parjang tehsils of Dhenkanal district without any environment clearance from District Environment Impact Assessment Authority, Dhenkanal as required for extraction of all minor minerals. He also alleged no permits or leases were sanctioned in favour of the two civil contractors- Woodhill Hillways (JV) and Hillways Construction Company Pvt. Ltd. Patnaik alleged that because of soil mining many of the old and mature trees have been uprooted leading to deforestation.
The Angul – Sukinda Railway project would be a 104.24 km broad gauge single railway line between Angul and Sukinda in Odisha that aims at establishing direct link between iron-ore rich areas of Odisha in Joda-Barbil to steel and sponge iron industries in Angul region and between coal mining region in Talcher to industries in Jakhapura, Joda-Barbil and areas in Keonjhar district. In the long term, the project is also expected to reduce distance between industrial areas such as Rourkela and Dhamra/paradip ports.