The Supreme Court today asked the Jaipur Metro Development Authority to seek permission from the Ministry of Environment and Forests for carrying out sand mining from river bed for its metro rail project.
A special forest bench of justices K S Radhakrishnan and C K Prasad said the MoEF shall consider within 10 days any application moved by the metro corporation for excavating sand from the river bed. The apex court passed the direction after Attorney General G E Vahanvati told the bench that the project development had been adversely affected after the Rajasthan High Court recently restrained any type of mining activities from Banas river.
Sounding a note of caution, about the adverse impact of underwater sand mining, Chief Justice Madan B. Lokur asked the advocate-general to seriously reconsider its policy on allowing it. The Chief Justice was hearing a batch of writ petitions on sand mining along with Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar. The High Court had put a ban on sand mining across the state with effect from April 1 and the state government had filed an appeal, urging the court to lift the ban.
Order of the Supreme Court of India in the matter of Deepak Kumar Vs State of Haryana & Ors dated 27/02/2012 regarding quarrying in the river beds of Yamuna, Tangri, Markanda, Ghaggar, Krishnavati River basin, Dohan River basin etc and extraction of minor minerals.
An Act to protect river banks and river beds from large scale dredging of river sand and to protect their biophysical environment system and regulate the removal of river sand and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
