Aurangabad | Dec 28, 2016: The National Green Tibunal (NGT) western zone, Pune has asked stone crushers in Rampuri to pay Rs 1 lakh as environmental damages. The money is to be used for tree plantation in the village during the rainy season.

In its November 11 order, the NGT also directed that the mining and crushing activity not be carried out without permissions or environmental clearances.

The meditation centre had said they needed a silent environment for imparting training. Arguing that the mining and crushing activities were causing noise and air pollution, they urged that the stone mining and crushing activity in the village be stopped.

They claimed that the respondents were conducting the activities illegally at the village without permission from the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board.

An NGT tribunal comprising Justice U D Salvi as judicial member and Ajay Deshpande as the expert member directed the respondents not to conduct operations without permission from the authorities.

On August 4, one of the respondents in the case, Popatlal Chordia, filed an affidavit opposing the application. He said he had applied for environmental clearance and had also submitted a plan to the concerned authorities. He said that the mining activities were being carried out with the tehsildar's permission.

Another respondent in the case, Samrat Stone Metal Industries, said the Vipassana Centre was over a kilometer away from the crushers. The district collector and the MPCB had also filed an affidavit. The pollution control board said that it had issued a closure notice to these stone crushers, which were carrying out the activity without necessary pollution control systems and without the consent to operate.

Following this, the tribunal directed Chordia, Krushna Bankar, another respondent, and Samrat Industries not to carry out the stone mining and crushing activity without permissions or clearances. They were also instructed to develop a green belt in the direction of the Vipassana Centre. The tribunal also ordered Bankar and Samrat Industries to pay Rs 1 lakh as environmental damages, which is to be deposited with the collector's office in Aurangabad and this amount shall be used for tree plantation in Rampuri village in the ensuing rainy season.

They directed the green belt should be developed as per recommendations of the pollution control board and the social forestry department.

(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)