THIRUVANANTHAPURAM | March 29, 2017: At a high-level meeting chaired by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan here on Tuesday, it was decided to reconsider the norm of minimum distance to be maintained from forest boundaries by quarries for mining activities.

The chief minister gave instructions to examine and consider scrapping the minimum distance norm from the Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 2015. While the forest department has not given any strict guidelines with regard to distance from forest boundaries, according to the rules, no quarrying activities are allowed within 50m from the areas that border forests in the state.

Also, the State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) has set the criterion that buffer zone of 200m should be maintained from the boundaries of vested forests, reserve forests and wildlife sanctuaries. Multiple rules have put the agencies that give clearance to various activities/projects in a fix.

The meeting also decided that the rule that insists that a minimum distance of 100m should be maintained from roads, lakes, houses and rivers should be reconsidered, as it has affected several small quarries in the state.

The chief minister said that the authorities should try clear the applications for quarry permits within 60 days, even though the rules allow a maximum of 105 days for clearance procedures. The meeting also decided to reduce the application fee for quarry permits to Rs 5,000 for 10 acres and Rs 5,000 for each additional 10 acres. At present, SEIAA charges from Rs 75,000 to Rs 2.50 lakh for permits.

As per the Supreme Court verdict on February 27, 2012, in the Deepak Kumar versus Haryana state case, environmental clearance is mandatory for mining minor minerals from quarries with an extent of five hectares or less.

The clearance should be obtained from district environmental impact assessment committee chaired by district collector.

The meeting was convened in the wake of pendency of applications for clearance due to which the construction sector has been badly hit. It was attended by industries minister A C Moideen and top officials.

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