Judgment of the National Green Tribunal (Eastern Zone Bench, Kolkata) in the matter of Subrata Bhattacharya Vs Directorate of Mines and Minerals & Others dated 06/09/2022.

The District Magistrate and Collector, Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal was directed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to maintain strict vigil over sand mining operations within the district in violation of environmental norms as well as the Sustainable Sand Mining Management Guidelines, 2016 and the Enforcement and Monitoring Guidelines for Sand Mining, 2020, issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).

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The state authorities in consultation with the Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IEST), Shibpur was directed to determine the amount of illegally mined sand and compute environmental compensation. And thereafter take steps to recover the same from the violators of environmental laws within four months and file affidavit of compliance by January 16, 2023, the judgment of the NGT (Eastern Zone Bench, Kolkata), September 6, 2022 said.