NGT panel to probe allegations of illegal mining by BJP MP Brij Bhushan Singh

The National Green Tribunal has formed a panel to verify the factual position and take appropriate remedial action on a plea claiming illegal mining by BJP MP Brij Bhushan Singh in some villages of Uttar Pradesh’s Gonda district.

The petition alleged that illegal mining was being carried out by the Kaiserganj MP in Majharath, Jaitpur and Nawabganj villages of Tarbganj tehsil in the district.

The plea also alleged ”illegal transportation of extracted minor minerals by overloaded trucks, numbering more than 700, every day, storage and illegal sale of minor minerals measuring about 20 lakh cubic metres and damage caused to the Patpar Ganj bridge and road by overloaded trucks”.

A bench of judicial member Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi and expert member A Senthil Vel said that prima facie, the averments made in the application raise questions relating to the environment.

”In view of the averments made in the application, we consider it appropriate that a joint committee be constituted to verify the factual position and take appropriate remedial action,” the bench said on Wednesday.

The tribunal formed a joint committee comprising the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control (UPPCB) and the District Magistrate, Gonda.

It directed the committee to meet within one week, ”undertake visits to the site, look into the grievances of the applicant, associate the applicant and representative of the project proponent concerned, verify the factual position and take appropriate remedial action by following due course of law and giving the opportunity of being heard to the project proponent”.

The committee may particularly clarify on compliance with the Sustainable Sand Mining Management Guidelines, 2016, and the Enforcement and Monitoring Guidelines for Sand Mining, 2020, including remediation and rehabilitation of mined areas and damage caused to Saryu river, the tribunal said.

It said the factual and action taken report has to be submitted within two months.

The matter has been posted for further proceedings on November 7.

Gonda District Magistrate Neha Sharma told PTI, ”I have been made a member of the committee constituted by the NGT to investigate the illegal mining on the banks of Ghagra and Saryu rivers. The committee members will visit the said site to inspect and record statements of the parties concerned. We have also taken measures at the district level against those involved in illegal mining.” However, in a tweet, Kaiserganj MP Singh said, ”I have nothing to do with illegal mining even remotely” and claimed that news reports of him running overloaded mining trucks are false.

Singh, who is the outgoing Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief, is also accused in a case of alleged sexual harassment of women wrestlers.