C'garh govt mulls simplification in sand mining norms, says CM

Chief Minister Raman Singh today told the state assembly that his government was considering to simplify the norms for sand mining following the hurdles created by National Green Tribunal's (NGT) new policies.
"The norms enacted by the NGT regarding seeking environment clearances and making five hectares of mine mandatory for sand mining, were not practical in Chhattisgarh," Singh said during a discussion in the House on the budgetary allocation for his various departments- mining, energy, forest, among others.
Maximum sand mines in the state were developed in two or three hectares of area. Hence, the condition of five hectares was not practical in the context of sand mining in Chhattisgarh, he added.

"Therefore, we are working on a mining plan to simplify norms for sand mining to make it more inconvenient," he said.
Talking about the energy scenario in the state, the chief minister said, "We are putting in efforts to take electricity to every household and power generation capacity in the state will cross 3000 MW by next year."
The power generation capacity has reached to 2,424 MW from 1,600 MW in 2003, he said.
According to Singh, with the establishment of a power plant in Madwa (Janjgir-Champa district) power generation capacity would reach 3,300 MW.
He added that for better power supply arrangement in 22 cities of the state, a working plan of Rs 930 crore has been prepared.