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Judgment
The issue raised in this letter petition relates to transportation of overloaded heavy number of trucks transporting the material from lime stone mining sites situated at Village Banor, Post Officer, Rajpur District, Sirmour, Himachal Pradesh in violation of environmental norms.
The matter was taken up by this Tribunal on 13.10.2022 and a joint Committee was constituted to submit a factual and action taken report.
In compliance thereof, the Committee visited the site and submitted a report dated 07.02.2023 as follows:
“xxx …………………………………….xxx……………………………xxx
At present there are four number of operational limestone mines in Banaur area of District Sirmaur, H.P. The list of operational mines are given in Table 1.
Table 1: List of operational limestone mines in Banaur area of District Sirmaur, H.P.
Sr. No.
Name and Address of
Limestone Mine
Capacity
Mining Area
Consent
Status
1
M/s Bohar Limestone Mine of Jai Singh Thakur & Sons, Village Banor, Tehsil Paonta Sahib, Distt. Sirmaur, H.P.
95800
M.T/year
4.15 Ha
Valid upto 31.03.2023
2
M/s Banor Limestone Mine of SC Chawla, VPO Banor, Tehsil Paonta Sahib. Distt. Sirmaur, H.P.
92000
M.T/year
4.75 Ha
Valid up to 31.03.2023
3
M/s Balbir Singh Supa Ram, VPO Banor, Tehsil Paonta Sahib, Distt. Sinnaur, 1I.P.
25000
M.T/year
0.847 Ha
Valid up to 31.03.2026
4
M/s Dhanwasa Limestone Mine of Sh. MC Goel, VPO Banor, Tehsil Paonta Sahib, Distt. Sirmaur, H.P.
135000
M.T/year
4.958 Ha
Valid up to 31.03.2025
The Joint Committee assembled at check post of mining department, check post including weigh bridge of mining department is established to check and collect revenue in form of royalty i.e. eighty rupees per Ton of limestone. Record(s} maintained by mining department through weighing machine along with CCTV footage was checked by joint committee. The copy of weigh record at mining check post from period 14.10.2022 to 16.11.2022 is annexed herewith as Annexure-4. As revealed from records, on an average approx. 30 no’s of trucks are engaged for transporting limestone from mine area (Banaur) to stockyards at Gorkhuwala & Purnwala viaBanaur-Rajpur-Amboya-Gorkhuwala-Puruwala which falls under Tehsil Paonta Sahib, District Sirmaur, H.P. covering road distance of approx. 25 km. During course of inspection trucks engaged in transporting limestone from mines to stockyard were further Inspected/ checked on Banaur-Rajpur-Amboya road. All trucks had provided tarpaulin covering over limestone/mined material during transportation. It is pertinent to mention here that mining activities are carried out in day light only i.e. sunrise to sunset. No mining activities including transportation of material is carried out after day light. It was also observed that condition of Banor-RajpurAmboya road was not good and required maintenance from Public Works Department, H.P. The road is single lane and movement of vehicles on unpaved berms generates fugitive dust emissions on the roadsides. Further encroachment on roadside due to dumped construction material of local residents leaves no space for vehicles to allow passing movement for vehicle coming from opposite side. Regional Transport Officer, Sirmaur also checked record as per allowed capacity of trucks. Afterwards, the joint committee held a meeting with truck operators at Village Baag Banor, Tehsil Paonta Sahib, Distt, Sirmaur and advised to follow traffic rules strictly and any violation of traffic rules shall not be tolerated. Trucks were also inspected for pressure horns. No pressure horn was found during the inspected of trucks. Driving licenses, Pollution Under Control Certificates and RCs of concerned truck drivers are annexed herewith as Annexure -5.”
The Committee has further recommended certain remedial measures which are required to be taken by the authorities concerned.
The matter was again taken up by this Tribunal and it was directed to examine as to whether Project Proponent has taken EC/CTE/CTO and the conditions are complied with or not. State PCB submitted the report dated 14.07.2023 with the facts that in compliance of the order of this Tribunal dated 09.05.2023 directions were issued to concerned to examine the compliances of conditions of EC. Six monthly environmental clearance conditions report were examined by the office concerned and it was found that the units are operating with valid consent status.
The grievance of the applicant is that operation of the heavy vehicles are causing air pollution and dust pollution and precautionary measures are required to be taken.
In view of above, we direct the respondents to ensure that:
i. Truck operators shall operate the trucks with load as per prescribed rules and only the drivers having valid driving license and fit vehicles should be allowed to operate.
ii. The respondents shall also ensure water sprinkling on haulage roads and unpaved road near Banaur Village.
iii. The Transport Department shall organize awareness camp for truck drivers regarding good traffic practices and traffic rules should be strictly followed.
iv. The State PCB is further directed that the conditions imposed in EC should be regularly monitored and complied with and in case of non-compliance, necessary legal action regarding imposition of environmental compensation shall be initiated according to law.
With the above directions, the application stands disposed of.