Udupi | Feb 27, 2017:

The National Green Tribunal (NGT), Chennai Bench, in its judgment on Monday, cancelled all permits for sand extraction issued by the district administration in the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) areas of Udupi district.

In a statement here, Ranjan Shetty, advocate for applicants, Udaya Suvarna and others from Baikady and Kukkude villages in Udupi district, said that the National Green Tribunal had pronounced that sand mining in the name of sand bar removal could not be permitted. Most of the guidelines provided in the notifications of Union Ministry of Environment and Forests for sand bar removal had not been followed. The very identification of sand bars was faulty.

The Udupi district administration had not involved civil society as mandated by Ministry notification while issuing permits for sand extraction. The administration relied on a technical report from a retired professor from National Institute of Technology, Karnataka, (NITK) instead of the institute (NITK), which was another violation. As per guidelines sand could be removed from sand bars only if sand bars existed and they caused obstructions to navigation of fishing boats.

A seven-member committee had also not been properly constituted, Mr. Shetty said. It may be recalled that Mr. Suvarna and a few other residents of Baikady and Kukkude villages near Brahmavar in Udupi taluk approached the NGT about 10 months ago stating that sand was being extracted flouting all norms and environmental laws in the last few years. The NGT had, on May 17, 2016, passed an order staying the issuance of sand mining permit/extraction of sand from the rivers of Udupi district located in CRZ areas. Deputy Commissioner Priyanka Mary Francis told The Hindu that the district administration had not received the judgment copy yet and the judgment had not been uploaded on the NGT website either. “We decide after getting the judgment copy,” she said.

(Source: http://www.thehindu.com/)