The two environmental watchdogs — State level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SIEAA) and State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) — are said to have faced the axe after they issued clearances to Mumbai-based companies to mine sand despite the State Government’s ban in place. These agencies are meant to issue environmental clearances for mining of minor minerals like sand in Jharkhand.
If insiders are to be believed, Chief Minister Raghubar Das ordered on April 24 to reconstitute the two bodies and also a Vigilance probe into ‘past clearances’ after they were found to have had violated the moratorium.
Notably, after much hue and cry over handing over sand ghats of the State to ‘companies from Bombay’ by the erstwhile Hemant Soren Government, the new regime of the BJP had given its nod to cancel all such auctions made. The job had been handed over to the respective panchayats and fresh auctioning was to be made. The revenue generated had to be shared on 80:20 basis between the respective rural elected bodies and the State Government.
Nevertheless, the SEAC and SIEAA went ahead and granted NOC on December 30 last year to as many as seven such companies. “SEIAA considered the recommendations made by SEAC to grant the environmental clearance to the following project proposals related to Balu Ghats-River bed sand mining,” reads the minutes of the 28th meeting of SEIAA headed by its chairman Gurdeep Singh and member-secretary AK Gupta.
“The decision to provide the green nod to the companies was not in conformity with the Government’s decision and its intention which was made clear soon after the change of guard. All such auctions made earlier in this regard were cancelled and the process (of issuing NOC) should have been halted,” said a senior official of the Mines Department.
The confrontation escalated to the level where the Government took a decision to sack the existing bodies well ahead of its normal tenure ending in December 2015. As the State Government cannot do this on its own, the Ministry of Environment and Forest has been sent the recommendation to dissolve the twin committees. Any formal decision in this regard is likely to follow soon.
This apart, the Chief Minister in his order went ahead ordering Vigilance probe into the issuance of the clearances by SEAC and SEIAA in which probably the gesture shown towards the companies would come under tough scrutiny. He, at the same time, also directed the new look agencies to switch completely into online mode and work in a transparent manner with a heightened role of information technology.
On the other hand, officials of the environmental watchdogs are tight-lipped over the entire matter. “We have not received any formal communication in this regard so far. We are conducting business as usual,” said an official. However, sense prevailing over there is that had the State Government informed about cancelation of lease acquired by the companies through auctions, the whole confusion would not have arisen.
“We had no information that lease for so and so company had been canceled for sand mining. If the decision was made, then we should have been kept in the loop as well. We went ahead with documents the companies possess and presented before the committees,” said another.
Dr Gurdeep Singh of the Centre of Mining Environment, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, is the chairman of SIEAA while Ashwni Kumar Saxena heads SEAC. The centres had come into existence for providing clearances to minor minerals over less than five hectares of land. The SEIAA comprises three members and SEAC comprises six members and a secretary besides, the chairpersons.