Bhopal: Tree plantation, manual mining are already in lease conditions

Bhopal: Tree plantation, manual mining are already in lease conditions

FPJ BureauUpdated: Thursday, May 30, 2019, 06:30 AM IST
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Bhopal: Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has announced a massive scheme for tree plantation around Narmada River. However, the condition is already included in the mining lease, which clearly says that the contractors mining in a river will have to plant trees on its banks and maintain a logbook. In fact, there is nothing new in the scheme the government announced over the last few days vis-à-vis mining from the rivers. Almost all these conditions are already included in the environmental clearance to mining lease. The fact is that the government could not make the mining companies and contractors adhere to these conditions.

It is because of failure of the mining department to enforce the conditions that the government has been forced to spend crores of rupees on conservation of rivers. Chouhan has announced a ban on mechanised mining from rivers. However that too is already included in the conditions imposed by the State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) – the body that is empowered to grant environmental clearance to mining projects.

A bare perusal of the SEIAA conditions would show that the mining department was keeping its eyes firmly shut even as the contractors were merrily minting money by unscrupulously exploiting the rivers. The SEIAA norms stipulate that no heavy vehicle would be taken into the river bed. Sand will be loaded in small tractor trolleys and would be brought to the road, where it would be re-loaded into heavy vehicles. The use of heavy vehicles on narrow or kutcha roads for mining is completely prohibited. The conditions also stipulate that the vehicles transporting sand would be completely covered, so that a minimum quantity of sand falls on the roads. It also says that sand-laden vehicles would not pass through village roads.

The conditions also stipulate that the flow of the river would not be diverted for mining and that sand would not be mined from a direction opposite to the river’s flow. The river bed would not be dug up more than three metres to mine sand and the quantity of mined sand would be in keeping with the mining plan. It would also be ensured that the there is ‘sufficient replacement’ of sand in the area from it is mined. The SEIAA norms enjoin upon the collectors to ensure that mining does not disturb the ecology of the area and that there is no adverse impact on the minor minerals as well as the river bed.

The SEIAA conditions are in keeping with the guidelines of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. SEIAA chairperson Waseem Akhtar says that while issuing environmental clearance, all these conditions are imposed. The document giving environmental clearance specifically states that it is the responsibility of the mining department and the local administration to ensure that the conditions are followed.

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