Digital environmental public hearing for 23 sand ghats in district today
08 Jun 2020 08:34:31
Staff Reporter :
MAHARASHTRA Pollution Control Board (MPCB) has organised environmental public hearing in respect of 23 sand ghats in Nagpur district on Monday, at Bachat Bhavan in Collectorate premises here. Due to lockdown (though curtailed) in force in the wake of COVID-19, the public hearing is proposed to be conducted digitally. MPCB published a notification in this regard recently. As proposed by District Mining Officer of Nagpur, District Collector/Magistrate or his representative not below the rank of Additional District Collector/Magistrate shall be the Chairman of the public hearing panel. Sub-Regional Officer of MPCB, Nagpur-I shall be convener of the panel and representative of Regional Officer of MPCB, Nagpur shall be the member. The hearing is scheduled to commence at 12 noon.
For the first time, due to lockdown (though curtailed) in force in the wake of COVID-19, the public hearing is proposed to be conducted via Zoom mobile phone application. The Zoom App meeting ld is 784-942.8955 and the password for the same is nagpur@ph1. The hearing assumes significance given the impact of lockdown on construction sector. Sand is a major material used in construction. At the same time, environmentalists demanded cancellation of the environmental public hearings at various places in Vidarbha due to COVID19 pandemic situation. As far as sand mining in Nagpur district is concerned, in 2018-19 total 15 sand ghats were auctioned and the district administration earned a revenue of Rs 11,55,55,000/-.
However, the highest bidders took possession of only 11 sand ghats. The tehsil-wise names of sand ghats that were auctioned included Saoner -- Ramdongari-A, Ramdongari-C, Gosewadi-A, Gosewadi-B, WakiA, Waki-B, Raiwadi; Kamptee -- Waregaon-I, Waregaon-2, and Neri; Mouda -- Mahalgaon-A, Mahalgaon-B, and Sirsoli; Kuhi -- Chichghat, Parseoni - -Waghoda. Of these, the highest bidders did not take possession of Gosewadi-B, WakiA, Waregaon-I, and Mahalgaon-B ghats. This year, initially, 26 sand ghats were finalised for auction. However, later, the number was revised to 23. The initial list of 26 sand ghats proposed to be auctioned included Raiwadi-A, Waghoda, and Chichghat that were in the list of sand ghats auctioned in 2018-19.
As per the executive summary of environment management plan for 23 sand ghats proposed to be auctioned in the district, the sand mining activity is expected to generate employment for 1,410 labourers. As per the ghat-wise number of labourers required, Chiknaghat in Mouda tehsil will require the highest 180 labourers, followed by Garanda in Parseoni (115 labourers), Waghoda in Parseoni tehsil (95 labourers) and Chichghat in Kuhi tehsil (80 labourers). As far as revenue earned by the district administration by way of royalty from major and minor minerals in the district is concerned, it was Rs 486,21,13,000/- in 2019-20 up to February 2020.This included Rs 360,45,97,000/- from major minerals and Rs 125,75,16,000/- from minor minerals.With this collection till February 2020, the administration could achieve 79.71 per cent of the target of collection of royalty from major minerals. The collection of royalty for minor minerals was 91.12 per cent of the target for the year.
VEAG opposes hearing VIDARBHA Environmental Action Group (VEAG) has demanded to cancel the environmental public hearing for 23 sand ghats in Nagpur district, due to COVID-19 pandemic situation. Sudhir Paliwal, Convener of VEAG, appealed to the citizens of Nagpur district to oppose the hearing on Monday. “MPCB has proposed environmental public hearing for sand ghats in Aurangabad, Osmanbad, Wardha, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli, Gondia, Yavatmal, Nagpur,Akola, Amravati etc this month via Zoom App. We have requested the authorities to cancel the public hearings as due to COVID-19 pandemic it is not possible for the stakeholders and environmental groups to attend public hearing,” he said.
A large number of sand ghats spread over whole district are clubbed together and a single public hearing is being conducted. Most of the ghats are on Pench and Kanhan rivers, which are lifelines of Nagpur district. Extracting sand from these rivers is not sustainable as it will destroy the fragile ecology of the region, Paliwal stated in a press release issued on Sunday. Pench and Kanhan are used as corridor by wild animals including Tigers.These rivers are also habitat of crocodiles and many rare species of fish. “Sand mining in such area will lead to poaching on a large scale,” he feared.
Besides, Paliwal stated that conducting public hearing via Zoom App was highly objectionable as such procedure was not laid down under EIA Notification 2006. A majority of citizens are not techno-savvy and do not have competence and facility to use digital platform and hence will be deprived of participating in such digital public hearings, he said. People should register their protest by attending the public hearing and by sending e-mails to ronagpur@mpcb.gov.in or sronagpur1@mpcb.gov.in, he appealed in a press release.