Prohibition of riverbed mining (RBM) in monsoon has been reiterated by the environment ministry through its guidelines, and also courts. As per the Sustainable Sand Mining Guidelines, 2016 and the Enforcement and Monitoring Guidelines for Sand Mining, 2020, riverbed mining shouldn’t be permitted in the rainy season between mid June to September. These guidelines are applicable to J&K as well but they are not enforced on the ground. Only official orders are passed which are hardly enforced on the ground.
On August 2nd 2022 the Director Geology and Mining Department issued a circular under office communication No: 59/MCC/DGM/CIRCULAR/15/3575-81.
All the District Mineral Officers (DMOs) were directed to ensure no riverbed mining (RBM) is undertaken from July 1st to September 15th in Jammu & Kashmir. Ideally this circular should have come up in the month of June, but it was issued after a delay of 1 month. I was happy to see this order as I have been personally much concerned about illegal mining, but it was not enforced on the ground until I had to go to the National Green Tribunal-NGT. As I write this article the illegal sand mining and riverbed mining is going on across J&K . On an average 100 massive truck loads of boulders are illegally extracted from Sukhnag river alone in Sail area of Beerwah in Central Kashmir’s Budgam district. Same is the situation in Nallah Pohru in Kupwara, Vaishav in Kulgam and Romshi and Rambiara in Pulwama/Shopian districts.
Multi-Departmental Task Force Cell
The J&K Government in 2018 constituted a Multi Departmental task force to check illegal mining at district level. Vide Order No. 1569-GAD of 2018 dated: 22.10.2018 a district level Task force Cell in Geology & Mining Department was set up across J&K. The task force cell is headed by Deputy Commissioner concerned and District Mineral Officer as Member Secretary with the main mandate to check illegal mining activities in the respective districts and imposition of penalties/compounding against the violators , but I have been asking DMO & DC Budgam for last many months to curb illegal riverbed mining in Sukhnag river and there is no response at all. I went through the environmental clearance given by JK State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority -SEIAA with regard to Budgam district and this is granted for 3 mineral blocks , 10,11 and 12 in Shali Ganga and Doodh Ganga only that too the work is to be done manually. This author had to fight a legal battle at NGT to make sure no machines were used in Shali Ganga and Doodh Ganga. The company which had plaudered Shali Ganga earlier is looting Sukhnag now for the last 2 years and nobody is acting. Even in these monsoon months when this work is banned across the country. The river beds have turned barren and they look so shabby.
Vehicle tracking system & AI
The Geology & Mining Department invited Expression of Interest (EoI) for empanelment of vendors for installation of Vehicle Tracking devices with Load Sensors on the vehicles engaged in transportation of minor minerals and is in the process of finalization of empanelment of vendors. Till date this hasn’t been implemented on the ground. This project would have been of great help in tracking the vehicles enroute, quantity of minerals being transported & would have ensured transparency in riverbed mining-RBM and checking the illegal extraction/transportation of minerals and controlling the loss to the Government exchequer. But nobody knows what has happened to this project ? The Geology and Mining Department as per their Annual Sand Mining Report 20222 had plans for establishment of digital check-gates on strategic locations in J&K which is Artificial Intelligence (AI) based Smart Enforcement System, but this has also been not set up on the ground as the employees of this department are working in league with the mining mafia especially the class IV and casual employees.
Security based Transport Challans
As per the guidelines of Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change through their official notification issued vide S.O No 141 (E) dated 15.01.2016 the Geology & Mining Department introduced the issuance of transportation permits/challans with security features like unique barcode, fugitive ink background, invisible ink mark and watermark. The National Green Tribunal had also issued orders in this direction earlier. As per the Govt order SO 430 dated: 22.12.2022, an amendment was made in the J&K Minor Mineral Concession Rules 2016 wherein the Mineral Concessionary requires transportation of minerals in different colour coded permits/challans in respect of Mining Lessees, Crusher Unit Holders and Principal Executing Agencies of various projects of National importance so that violators if any are identified and penalized/checked. But these things are also not enforced on the ground. Even there are no CCTVs installed at the mining sites so that illegal riverbed mining is checked.
The Geology and Mining Department J&K claims to have established an e-market / e-challan web portal in the year 2022 wherein the consumers can purchase the minor minerals and processed minerals from the legal vendors/mineral concessionaires of the Govt. notified rates, but these rates are only restricted to papers . Sand truck / tipper which was sold @ Rs 6000 per truck in 2019 is now sold @ Rs 16000 per truck even in the areas located within 2 kms of mining area. As per the guidelines of JK State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority -SEIAA the riverbed material has to be sold @ 50 % discount within 2 kms of the mining areas. I wrote and agitated about it several times but the Geology & Mining Department never ever enforced these rules / rate list.
Drones & CCTVs
In a landmark judgement the Bombay High Court’s Goa bench, in September 2021, slammed the state police for having failed to curb the illegal sand mining in Goa as the rivers in this tiny state have been plundered by the sand mafia. The high court directed the police to seize and destroy unregistered canoes and impound the trucks which illegally transport sand, and also directed to install closed circuit tv cameras – CCTVs
“The authorities, who were duty-bound to prevent this sand mining, do not appear to be seriously interested in implementing the orders made by us from time to time. According to us, the persons involved in illegal sand mining are out to hoodwink the authorities. Unfortunately, we find that in many cases even the authorities appear to be too eager to be hoodwinked,” Justices M.S. Sonak and M.S. Jawalkar said in their order, while hearing a petition filed by a local NGO Goa Foundation.
On the direction of Allahabad High Court’s order issued in 2016 the Uttar Pradesh Govt has not only installed CCTV cameras around mining areas, particularly around rivers which are prone to illegal sand mining, but even drones have been procured by the Geology & Mining Department of UP to check the illegal sand mining in the state. The Madras High Court in its February 2018 order also directed for installation of CCTVs to control illegal sand mining in the state especially around Cauvery and Coleroon river beds in Trichy and Karur districts.
Conclusion
The specific condition No. 30 Environmental Clearance guidelines of J&K State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority -SEIAA calls upon the Geology and Mining Department to use technology like Bar Coding, IT, web-based services, SMS applications to account for weight of minerals being taken out of the mining block and the number of trucks moving out with the mineral. This condition is also violated. Leaving aside these guidelines, the Department isn’t even implementing its own recommendations that were made in its 2022 Sand Mining Annual Report. In this age of technology, when we see CCTVs cameras installed in every nook and corner of J&K, why aren’t these electronic gadgets installed around mining sites?
I would in fact suggest introducing drones for aerial surveillance to check illegal mining in Rivers and even in Karewas where illegal clay is excavated on a large scale. The drones are already used to check illegal coal, bauxite, copper mining in many states of India. The corrupt staff of the Geology and Mining Department who have amassed huge wealth illegally must be thrown out and declared dead wood & instead use of technology be introduced for more transparency. If there are drones and CCTVs why do we need these corrupt class IV and casual employees who have purchased their own trucks , cranes and other machinery used in mining activity. The J&K Anti Corruption Bureau -ACB & CBI must check the assets of all the employees of Geology & Mining Department as many of them are involved in large scale corruption and have caused huge loss to state exchequer in the last 5 to 10 years especially.
- Views expressed in the article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the editorial stance of Kashmir Observer
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