PANJIM: The Goa Government has informed the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that it will not grant any permits for sand extraction in the State till the Green Bench decides on the matter.
The Goa River Sand Protectors Network (GRSPN) in November 2021 had filed an appeal before the tribunal stating that the Goa State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (Goa-SEIAA) had granted four environment clearances at four different locations in River Chapora permitting sand mining.
It alleged that the environment clearances by the Goa-SEIAA are against the law laid down by the Supreme Court and the tribunal, besides violating the Union Environment Ministry’s January 15, 2016 notification.
Directorate of Mines and Geology (DMG) had not renewed or granted sand mining permits for the last five seasons – 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 – after GRSPN had approached the High Court of Bombay at Goa seeking restrictions on the number of sand mining permits. DMG had issued over 300 sand mining permits for the 2017-18 seasons with a cap of 6000 cum on extraction.
Sources informed that during the recent hearing before NGT on May 17, the State government made a submission that it will not grant any permits for sand extraction till the green bench decides on the matter. This is what the NGT ordered too
The Goa-SEIAA too during its meeting earlier this month has decided not to issue any environment clearance for sand extraction in the State for now.
All environmental clearances granted for mining of minor minerals to be revoked
PANJIM: In a major move, the Goa State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (Goa-SEIAA) has decided to revoke all the environmental clearances (ECs) granted for mining of minor minerals by the District Environment Impact Assessment Authority (DEIAA). The decision will impact those projects which were granted ECs during the period from January 15, 2016 to September 13, 2018.
The project proponents will have to reapply online on Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) Parivesh Portal to get fresh ECs, which will be now granted by SEIAA based on an appraisal carried out by the Goa State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC).
The principal bench of the NGT via an order in September 2018 had stated that the mining projects with lease areas of up to 5ha should be evaluated by the state SEACs, based on whose recommendation the SEIAA and not the DEIAA can grant the EC.
Accordingly, the Union environment ministry last month directed all the States and UT to complete the exercise on re-evaluating the project and granting ECs within a period of one year.
