Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 27: In Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against illegal mining across the river Ravi under the jurisdiction of State and seeking closure of 13 illegal stone crushers operating from Lakhanpur down stream to Jarai, Division Bench of High Court comprising Justice Mohd Yaqoob Mir and Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur issued various directions.
After hearing Senior Advocate SS Lehar with Advocate Meharban Singh, DB observed, “Deputy Commissioner Kathua has filed the status report wherein it has been stated that installation of stone crushers and their operation at present is regulated by the criteria adopted by the J&K State Pollution Control Board and the competence to grant sanction for running the stone crushers lies with the State Pollution Control Board and the verification of the land where the stone crushers are installed is done by Tehsildar concerned and the registration as a small scale unit is done by the DIC”.
“The Deputy Commiss-ioner or Tehsildar concerned is not the licensing authority. Upon this State Pollution Control Board was impleaded as party respondent who filed the status report wherein it is stated that the Board has consented for establishing six stone crushers up to 2011-2012 but in the light of Court order State Pollution Control Board had processed for consent and consented 16 eligible units for operation. At present 22 stone crushers are operational and as per the filed reports all the units have requisite pollution control devices”, the DB observed.
Upon this Senior Advocate SS Lehar submitted that the details of petitions and directions passed were not clearly mentioned in the report and sought direction to provide copies of the orders passed by the Court in pursuance of which 22 stone crushers were permitted to be established. He also sought directions to DIC to provide the details of registration, if any, issued in favour of stone crushers.
On this, Division Bench directed State Pollution Control Board as well as General Manager DIC to furnish the requisite details. In the meanwhile, Division Bench directed Senior Advocate S S Lehar to file his response to the status reports as filed by Deputy Commissioner Kathua and J&K State Pollution Control Board.
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