Ghaziabad: National Green Tribunal (NGT) has ordered the district administration to halt soil excavation work in a pond in Dasna village after it was alleged that the executive officer of the Nagar Palika Parishad was facilitating illegally mining of sand in collusion with a private company. A joint committee set up by the green court will conduct a site inspection to assess whether the allegations are true and submit a report within two months.The pond in question, called Johad, was first mentioned to the NGT in a petition by Afsar Ali in 2022. He claimed unchecked dumping of waste and discharge of untreated sewage was polluting the pond water. NGT subsequently ordered for the restoration and rejuvenation of the pond.Following this, the executive officer of the Dasna Nagar Palika Parishad roped in AVP Enviro Facilities to dewater and desilt the pond. “However, instead of carrying out genuine desilting, the firm, in connivance with the executive officer, converted the restoration exercise into large-scale illegal mining by deploying heavy machinery, excavating commercially valuable sand and transporting the same through trucks for commercial sale,” said advocate Mansi Chahal, who is representing Waseem Raja.Raja had filed a petition against the alleged misuse of the NGT order, in which he argued that the company was illegally mining sand in the guise of desilting, and it had no environmental clearance, mining lease or statutory permissions to conduct the mining operation.His counsel further claimed that additional engineer (civil) of the nagar panchayat of Dasna issued a show-cause notice on June 12 for excavation beyond the approved quantity and in violation of the work order yet the illegal excavation continued. “Apart from this, the applicant, along with other members of the nagar panchayat, sent representations to the authorities, including the district magistrate of Ghaziabad and the divisional commissioner of Meerut, asking them to take action against the violators engaged in illegal mining, but no response has been received from them either,” she said.While hearing the petition on July 10, NGT chairperson justice Prakash Srivastava and expert member Dr Afroz Ahmed constituted the joint committee, consisting of representatives of the member secretaries of Central Pollution Control Board and UP Pollution Control Board, directorate of geology and mining and the district magistrate of Ghaziabad, to ascertain the extent of illegal excavation and identify those responsible for it.“Considering the forthcoming monsoon, the joint committee will take up the exercise of the spot inspection without any delay and an action report should be filed before the tribunal before the next date of hearing on Sept 16. In the meanwhile, the secretary of the directorate of geology and mining, UP, will ensure that no illegal mining from the pond in question takes place in the name of desilting,” the tribunal ruled.Taking note of the points highlighted, particularly the fact that the Ghaziabad DM has been informed about the illegal activities, the tribunal issued notices to all respondents and sought their reply on what steps were taken to stop the alleged misuse.
