*Expresses concern over illegal extraction of minerals
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Aug 10: Observing that all the concerned Government agencies are unaware of the extent of encroachments along the banks of River Tawi despite the situation having assumed alarming proportion, the Division Bench of State High Court comprising Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice B S Walia has directed for mapping of entire land along the banks of sacred river right from Nagrota to Phallian Mandal and then identification of encroachers for initiating stern action including demolition of unauthorised constructions.
These directions have been passed in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by practising lawyer Diwakar Sharma and RTI practitioner Raman Sharma, founding members of “Save My Tawi Campaign” highlighting the plight of River Tawi because of encroachments, illegal extraction of minor mineral and uninterrupted flow of sewage water.
“It seems that the concerned Governmental agencies are completely unaware of the extent of encroachments on the banks of River Tawi. Moreover, confusion prevails as to which agency or department has to ensure that there is no encroachment and which department should have controlled and regulated the land along the banks”, the Division Bench observed in the open court, adding “this is mainly because no serious efforts were made in this direction and the concerned agencies always tried to pass buck on each other”.
Stating that encroachments that have taken place over the years and may be continuing on account of negligence or with the connivance of the official respondents are required to be dealt with seriously, the DB said, “first of all the official respondents must identify as to what exactly is the area, which forms part of River Tawi or its banks, which otherwise should have been controlled and regulated by the Irrigation and Flood Control Department, Forest Department and other Governmental agencies”.
“Once the extent of area is identified and property mapped, it would then be easy for the respondents to immediately act to demolish any unauthorised construction or encroachment or to prevent such an encroachment in future”, the DB said and directed the Divisional Commissioner, Jammu to constitute a committee of officers from Revenue, Irrigation and Flood Control and Forest Departments, Jammu Municipal Corporation, Jammu Development Authority and Nazool to identify and map the entire land along the banks of River Tawi from Nagrota to Phallian Mandal.
After mapping the entire land, the committee shall identify the encroachers, the extent of encroachments made by them, the nature of encroachment or construction raised by them and the time when the encroachment had taken place and thereafter necessary steps shall be taken for removing the encroachment, the DB further directed.
Pointing towards the status report dated July 22, 2015, the DB directed that a comprehensive report shall be filed by the respondents reflecting the steps taken to evict the encroachers whose names were mentioned in the status report. “Failure on the part of the concerned authorities in this regard would make them liable for action”, the DB made it clear.
In order to prevent encroachments in future, the DB has issued directions for preparation of record of satellite imagery of the entire area on fortnightly basis for examination of all the concerned authorities. “This will facilitate the concerned departments to ascertain whether any fresh attempt has been made to encroach upon the river banks”, the DB added.
Taking serious note of failure of the Jammu Municipal Corporation to initiate necessary steps to check pollution of river Tawi, the DB said, “the Corporation shall file a detailed affidavit reflecting the steps taken to prevent the free flow of sewage water from the city into the river as also the steps taken to prevent dumping of municipal waste on the river banks”.
Referring to the argument of the counsel for the petitioner that there was large scale extraction of minor minerals like sand, bajri etc from the Tawi bed without there being any effective mechanism to monitor the same, the DB observed, “the court has been informed that sand mafia was permitted to have a free hand on extraction of these minor minerals”.
On this, the Mining Officer, who was present in the court, drew the attention of DB towards SRO 133 dated April 20, 2016 which reads: “As a transitory measure and in order to ensure uninterrupted supply of minor mineral to the consumers, the department may issue permission valid up to July 31, 2016 for extraction of minor mineral to any existing quarry holder or to any person extracting such minor minerals or for transportation of such minerals on royalty basis”.
“From the statement of the Mining Officer it appears that there is no regulation on extraction of minor minerals, which goes on throughout the night including its transportation”, the DB observed, adding “admittedly none of the officers of the Geology and Mining Department is present at night to check as to whether extraction of minor minerals is taking place from the designated spots/blocks according to the prescribed coordinates or not”.
Accordingly, the DB directed Commissioner Secretary, Geology and Mining Department and SSP Jammu to file comprehensive and detailed affidavits as to how they propose to check the menace of illegal extraction of minor minerals from Tawi bed so that there is no loss of revenue to the Government on account of non-payment of royalty by those involved in extraction of such minor minerals and the extraction is permitted only from the designated blocks.
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