Permissible sand mining quantity governed by mining plan, EC, and consents (lowest), not tender quantity; EC transferable without altering terms.

ORDER

1. The common question of facts and the law has been raised in both the applications thus, are taken together and is being decided by common order. Heard the argument and perused the record.

2. The issue raised in this application is restitution of the environment degraded due to mining in the District- Sehore, M.P. The contention of the applicant is that before floating the tender in question, and assessment of the availability of the sand was done by the District Administration, accordingly the tender was floated. After analyzing the quantity of the sand permissible under the tender document and given permission under the EC document, it was realised that there is an illegal excavation of sand which is more than the tender document. It is further submitted that before restoring/restituting the environment, the tender which was floated in the next year could not be permitted to be continued.

3. The matter was taken up by this Tribunal and a committee consisting representative of the MPSEIAA and District Collector and one representative of the MPPCB was constituted with direction to submit the report.

4. In compliance thereof, the joint committee has reviewed the matter and submitted the report as follows :-

1.“On dated 30/08/2019, the Madhya Pradesh Sand Mining Policy, 2019 was notified by State of M.P.

2.According to this policy, every district was required to have its own contractor or a group of contractors for carrying out the task of excavation of sand.

3.In the month of October 2019 tender was floated for inviting contractor for the district of Sehore.

4.As per tender, the total quantity of sand which has been auctioned is 74,38,560 cubic meters.

5.The tender in question was awarded in favor of M/S Power Mech Project Limited.

6.M/S Power Mech Project Limited executed agreement with the state government and started applying for necessary permission as mentioned in Rule 12 of the M.P. Sand mining Rules 2019.

7.M/S Power Mech Project Limited got all the environment clearances that have been applied.

8.EC has been issued for 26 mines out of total 30 tendered mines.

9.EC granted for total 92,02,370 cubic meters sand and despite the quantity of sand tendered being 74,38,560 cubic meters of sand.

10.The total quantity of sand for which EC has been issued in access to the tendered quantity is 26,92,775 cubic meters of sand.

11.Petitioner provided a tabular chart of 26 mines which EC has been granted.

Field Observation:

The committee first visited the site to observe the present status of sand mines. The Mining lease area of the sand mines are located on River Narmada, Distt Sehore. Some of the mines are visited by the committee and statuses observed during inspection are as follow. The geographical locations of the site are measured using mobile based application.

During inspection following status was observed by the committee:

1.Jahajpura-1 Sand Mine: -

• EC is transferred to M P State Mining Corporation, Bhopal and the lease area of the sand mine is 15.80 Hectares.

• Sand mining was not found operational.

• Some sand pits are found at the lease area.

• the lease area not properly demarcated with pacca munnare.

2.Jahajpura-2 Sand Mine: -

• EC is transferred to M P State Mining Corporation, Bhopal and the lease area of the sand mine is 23.00 Hectares.

• Sand mining was not found operational.

• Some sand pits are found at the lease area.

• The lease area not properly demarcated with pacca munnare.

3.Babri-2 Sand Mine: -

• EC is transferred to M P State Mining Corporation, Bhopal and the lease area of the sand mine is 20.50 Hectares.

• Sand mining was found operational.

• Some sand pits are found at the lease area.

• The lease area not properly demarcated with pacca munnare.

4.Ambajdeed-1 Sand Mine: -

• Lease area of the sand mine is