The National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) general order banning mining of sand without a requisite environmental clearance from the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority is a case of judicial overreach, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Tuesday.
Speaking in the Goa Assembly in response to a calling attention motion over the issue of sand extraction, Parrikar also said that the order was not being implemented and only resulted in loss of revenue to the State.
“The order is a case of (judicial) overreach. Everyone knows the order is not implemented. It (the order) has resulted in rise of prices and black marketing of sand,” Parrikar said.
“We are losing out on revenue,” Parrikar said.legislators cutting across party lines had demanded that the Government act on the ban as it was affecting the poor and preventing them from going ahead with the building of their houses.
The NGT ban had followed a petition filed before the tribunal, in wake of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Durga Shakti Nagpal’s action against the mechanised sand mafia operating in Uttar Pradesh.
Parrikar also said that Goa was a special case on account of the fact that unlike in many other States mining in Goa was not mechanised and done manually, as a result of which the activity should not have been banned in States like Goa.
“This is not the right way of judicial activism. Sudden activism does not solve problem,” Parrikar said, adding that the ban was creating a serious problem.
“If you stop economic activity, we (Governments) will not have money to pay. We might also have to take a cut (from the illegal sand mining operation)… Irrational and sudden bans order going across board should not be issued without hearing the State,” Parrikar said.
Parrikar brought to light that the shortage of sand was hindering even the construction of toilets.“What the NGT is saying is that you should shit (sic) in the forest,” Parrikar said.
He further said that the State would be represented at the NGT in the first week of November and that an environment impact assessment processes had already been initiated by the State Government.