BHOPAL | May 23, 2017: A day after announcing a blanket ban on sand mining from Narmada riverbed, Madhya Pradesh government on Tuesday set up a committee comprising senior bureaucrats and technical experts to recommend 'scientific mining'.

The committee headed by state mining and industries minister Rajendra Shukla will submit its initial report in six months.

The panel will recommend process and criterion for scientific mining from the riverbed and suggest modern techniques for transparent and expert marketing and manufacturing of sand.

The committee comprises additional chief secretary (ACS), energy and happiness department Iqbal Singh Bains, ACS or a representative from Narmada Valley Development Authority (NVDA), principal secretary of urban development and environment, water resource department and secretary mining.

Five experts who are likely to be included are Prof Navin Sharma of IIT Roorkee, Prof Abhijeet Mukherjee and Prof K Pathak of IIT Kharagpur, Prof A K Gosai of IIT New Delhi and Prof Pradip Shrivastava, head, Environment Science department, Barkatullah University, Bhopal.

"This is for the first time ever when a state government has formed a committee to decide on scientific ways of mining sand to conserve river and environment. The committee of officials will suggest ways to conduct mining without damaging the environment," said mining secretary Manohar Dubey.

The cabinet though stated that ban on mining would lead to a Rs 200 crore annual loss to the state exchequer. But, it would ensure safety to the lifeline of the state 'Narmada' and control the ecological imbalance.

"This is a remarkable decision taken by chief minister Chouhan which has gone a step further to conserve the environment and protect sacred river Narmada. We have identified some experts to conduct a detailed study on mining and would likely take a decision by September or October, state mining minister Shukla told TOI.

He said government's decision to ban use of machines for sand mining in other rivers would also help in protecting and conserving ecology of these river and water bodies.

"It has been observed that companies misuse permission of mining lease agreement by carrying out mining activities indiscriminately to earn profit and damage the ecology of the river and the environment," Shukla said.

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