Bhopal | May 26, 2017: The central bench of National Green Tribunal (NGT) admitted a petition filed by former minister and former BJP MLA Kamal Patel regarding illegal mining in Narmada River at Harda and Dewas districts on Thursday here. The tribunal after admitting the petition issued notices to the respondents in the petition.

The NGT issued notices to secretary, Union Ministry of Environment and Forest and Climate Change, chief secretary of Madhya Pradesh Basant Pratap Singh, DGP Madhya Pradesh Rishi Kumar Shukla, secretary, department of mines and mineral resources, the then collector of Harda, collector of Dewas, the mining officer of Dewas, the then mining officer of Harda and others against whom Patel filed the petition. In the petition, Patel stated about illegal mining in the river in Harda and Dewas districts by mining firms in violation of set norms. Counsel for petitioner, Ayush Dev Bajpai said that the tribunal, after issuing notices to the respondents, sought replies from them. During the hearing, the petitioner requested the tribunal to form a special investigation team (SIT) to evaluate the environmental damage caused due to illegal mining.

“The tribunal has set the next date of hearing on July 19 in which the respondents have to present their replies. Apart from this, it has also issued notice to the state government asking why an SIT should be constituted to evaluate the environmental damage. During the hearing, the tribunal asked why Patel didn’t file the petition during 10 years in which he was a minister in the state government and an MLA. On this, the reply presented by us was that while he was a minister and public representative he used to be surrounded by government officials due to which he could not visit illegal mining sites. On May 8, when he was going to attend a function near Narmada river, he saw illegal mining being done after which he filed the petition on May 25,” said Bajpai. The counsel for respondents, Sachin Verma however denied that the tribunal has issued any notice to the state government regarding formation of the SIT.

“The notices were issued to the respondents but not to the state government regarding formation of a SIT. The respondents would present their reply on July 19,” said Verma.

(Source: http://www.freepressjournal.in/)