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Haryana has documented a loss of Rs 1.4 crore on account of illegal sand mining activity from a land parcel belonging to the Indian Air Force on the Uttar Pradesh Haryana border. The state submitted its report in this regard to the central bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Tuesday.
The financial loss due to illegal sand mining in the area as well ecological degradation from such activity has been recorded in a report prepared by a committee headed by Vijay Singh Dahiya, deputy commissioner of Faridabad. Its report estimates that 60,000 metric tonnes of sand has been illegally mined from land belonging to the Indian Air Force, near Noida, in the Gautam Budh Nagar-Faridabad border. The area is about two kilometers from the banks of the river Yamuna, informed Bhupendar Singh, mining officer of Faridabad district.
The Indian Air Force has alleged that several complaints were filed with the Haryana police regarding illegal sand removal in the area. However, the state authorities have denied receiving any complaint, except the one made recently. “Currently there is no illegal mining activity going on in the area, and the auctioned mining leases are in the pipeline for clearances,” the mining officer said.
The Uttar Pradesh government, however, informed the tribunal, that 34 vehicles carrying illegally mined sand had been recently seized by officials. This is contrary to the government’s earlier stand of January this year, when the Uttar Pradesh government had claimed before the NGT that there is no transport of illegally mined sand in the state.
NGT has now directed a detailed probe in the matter to ascertain parties involved in illegal mining activities, actions to be taken by state authorities to address the problem, measures of restoration to be undertaken to address the ecological degradation from sand mining, and action to be taken against the erring officials who overlooked such illegality. Both the Haryana and Uttar Pradesh governments has been given a four weeks' time to file their responses.