Why are you allowing sand mining to go on?: NGT to U'khand

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) today asked Uttarakhand government why it was allowing large- scale illegal sand mining to go on, as alleged in a plea, and asked the state to take a serious note of the matter.
"Why are you allowing this to go on?" a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar asked the counsel for Uttarakhand government who claimed he has not received the copy of the petition and is thus unaware of the allegations made against the state.
The Tribunal, therefore, directed the lawyer for the petitioner Khush Naseeb Khan to provide a copy of the petition to the state and listed the matter for hearing on October 9.

The bench, while granting time to Uttarakhand, made it clear that the Tribunal is "really concerned" with what has been alleged and directed the state to take a serious note of the same.
It also questioned the state as to how it could issue a notification authorising mining of sand without clearance of the environment ministry when such a permission is required under central law.
The bench, meanwhile, granted liberty to the petitioner to file video recordings as well as pictures of the alleged largescale sand mining going on in the state.

On September 5, the Tribunal had directed Uttarakhand government not to issue any fresh permit for carrying out sand mining in the state.

The NGT had also issued a notice to Uttarakhand and sought its response by today, on a plea which seeks a stay on the operation of the state government's notifications allowing sand mining without permission of the environment ministry.
Khan, in his petition, has alleged largescale removal of sand from river beds is being carried out without environment clearance as the state has issued notifications extending the period of licences granted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests for sand mining.
The plea also alleged mining activity in the state is in violation of the NGT's August 5 order by which it had imposed a ban on removal of sand from river beds.