Joint Committee report in Original Application No 607 of 2018 in Vinod Kumar Jangra Vs State of Haryana & Others dated 18/09/2023.

The matter related to the operation of stone crushers in the district of Charkhi Dadri and Bhadra.

There are a total 343 stone crushing units in Charkhi Dadri district. Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) has taken actions such as closure, prosecution and imposition of environment compensation against the defaulting units of district Charkhi Dadri. A total of 40 stone crushers were found non compliant with the provision under Air Act 1981 and these were closed by the SPCB. An environmental compensation amounting to six crores was imposed on 56 stone crushing units out of which around 4 crore was recovered by the SPCB from 44 units.

A total of 239 units were operating having valid consent to operate from the SPCB. A total of 5 Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS) stations will be installed by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). After obtaining adequate monitoring data from all crushing clusters/areas in the district, the operation of each cluster will be controlled based on the AQI data. Further, an action plan will be prepared as per data received from the stations.

The report informed that as per recommendation made by a joint committee in its report dated September 27, 2021 and order of NGT, November 15, 2021 - that no new stone crushing units of any capacity should be allowed to establish and operate in the region including any expansion of the existing units, HSPCB has not allowed any new stone crushing unit to operate or increase/expansion of existing units till date. The district administration, Charkhi Dadri and the forest department, Haryana had conducted a special drive of plantation/distribution of 2.63 lakh trees in monsoon 2023.