ORDER

1. The issue of non-compliance of sustainable Sand Mining Guidelines 2020 has been again raised in this application with the situation of anomalies in the State of Madhya Pradesh relating to districts of Devas, Harda, Sihor and Raisen where Madhya Pradesh SEIAA has granted the prior EC to the project proponents for a period starting from 2016 till date, which stands expired as on 31.03.2021/31.03.2022 by virtue of MoEF O.M. dated 24.12.2013 and Sustainable Sand Mining Guidelines, 2020 which mandates that „EC will be valid for the lease period subjected to ceiling of five years only.

2. Effectively MP SEIAA has granted all the environment clearances for the lease period which was expiring on 31.03.2021. Subsequently in 2019, MP state government has auctioned the sand quarries in the state and awarded the contracts district wise to the successful contractors starting from March, 2020. Based on the contracts the successful contractors have got the existing valid EC‟s on their name as per the EIA notification. However, these private contractors did not apply nor got a fresh EC‟s for the sand mines instead they have kept on operating the mines on the transferred EC‟s which stand ex