Pune | Feb 07, 2017: The District Environment Impact Assessment Authority (DEIAA) has deferred 20 quarrying proposals in the district for not complying with environmental guidelines.
The district officials have taken a cautious approach to clearing such proposals. Quarries are dug mainly for mineral extraction and crushed sand for construction purposes.
"Of the 20 proposals placed before DEIAA, none met the environment norms. While 18 of the proposals may be considered for evaluation, two of them cannot be taken forward," said committee chairman and Pune district collector Saurabh Rao. At present, the district has over 800 quarries in different stages of approval and the demand for quarrying came up from Shirur, Baramati, Indapur and Ambegaon talukas. While 300 have all the clearances, nearly 319 cases are yet to be sanctioned.
As per the rules, every quarry leaseholder must obtain necessary environment clearance, collector's order and appoint an environment consultant to present the case before the DEIAA. Even as the proposals were put forth by consultants, the district collector has directed them to verify the guidelines by physically surveying the areas rather than depending on google maps.
District mining officer Suyog Jagtap said that the proposals were rejected because many came from leaseholders who were already operating quarries without caring for rules. The others, who even appointed consultants, did not take precautions to protect the environment. The quarrying activity should not damage the air, land and agriculture in its vicinity.
Last year, DEIAA was formed after the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) was decentralised. The SEIAA had also decided not to clear any stone crushing units in the wake of residents complaining of high-level pollution in areas such as Wagholi. The residents had also approached the court and SEIAA took a stand to put such proposals on hold, stated a former committee member.
DEIAA was formed to monitor sand mining activities and had laid guidelines for the same. The ministry also constituted District Level Expert Appraisal Committee (DEAC). Its chairperson was the executive engineer of irrigation department and member secretary an assistant director or deputy director or district mines officer or geologist in the district. Besides clearing proposals, the district survey report for sand and river bed mining and mining of other minor minerals were to be prepared through these committees.
About the proposals, the committee decided that unless a ground level survey was conducted and impact on the villages was assessed, none would be cleared. The collector also mentioned that all these areas should have a green buffer zone for plantation of 1000 trees per acre.
The district gets maximum revenue from mining activity. In 2015-16, the district had garnered revenue of Rs 184 crore through mining. For the current year, Rs 110 crore has been achieved so far against the targeted Rs 175 crore.
(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)