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Orissa high court stays sand mining after state’s Dec 21 order
The bench comprising acting chief justice BR Sarangi and justice Murahari Raman passed the order on Wednesday in view of the state’s December 21 order
BHUBANESWAR: The Orissa high court on Wednesday stayed sand mining on riverbeds across the state, three weeks after the state mining department allowed mechanised mining using excavators.
The bench comprising acting chief justice BR Sarangi and justice Murahari Raman passed the order on Wednesday in view of the state mining department resolution on December 21 last year that said sand mining may be done manually, through semi-mechanized or mechanized means depending upon the location, thickness of sand, deposition, agricultural land and riverbed.
Wednesday’s order came on a petition by a social activist Prashant Das against mechanised sand mining on the riverbed of Kathajodi permitted by the authorities, seeking guided and controlled transportation of the mined sand and scrap the current auction procedure for grant of mining lease.
On November 29 last year, the high court slammed the affidavit filed in July by former Cuttack Collector Bhabani Shankar Chayani in response to the petition, calling it “false and frivolous”.
The high court alluded to feedback from the Bar, who told the bench that “the situation and the ground reality are so alarming that the Cuttack city is filled up with pollution”.
Das’s lawyer Sukant Kumar Dalei said though the petition was meant limited to the Kathajodi riverbed, the mining department’s resolution allowing mechanised mining on riverbeds across the state that led to a statewide stay.
“When the first hearing on the matter was done, the state government issued a fresh notification on sand mining. The next hearing is in February,” added Dalei.
