Report on sand mining at different ghats on river Son in Aurangabad and Rohtas districts, Bihar, 27/07/2020
Report filed by the Central Pollution Control Board before the National Green Tribunal in the matter of Mohd. Imran Khan Kadri, Muslim Rashtriya Manch Vs State of Bihar.
The report was on sand mining at different ghats on river Son in Aurangabad and Rohtas districts in Bihar by M/s Aditya Multicon Pvt Ltd. The report was in compliance to the NGT order of February 19, 2020. The committee constituted for the purpose, inspected the various sand ghats on river Son.
One of the ghats visited by the committee was Kesao Ghat in Aurangabad district. Roads to the ghats were broken and full of mud at many places. No pillars or benchmark were observed at the site. This would have helped to know the actual configuration of the edge of the river bank and its distance from the sand extraction site or the level of the banks prior to sand mining.
Illegal sand mining was reported near the Kesao sand mining ghat. Footprints of Heavy Earth Moving Machinery (HEMM) were visible on the illegal sand mining ghat. It was observed on the illegal sand mining ghat that a kutcha pavement (for movement of machinery) was made inside the river Son. Due to rains and water flow in the river the kutcha pathway was broken at few places.
This is in violation to Bihar Minerals (Concession, Prevention of illegal mining, Transportation & Storage Rules, 2019 and also dangerous for the safety of the bridge. The team found that at few place below the Son bridge connecting Aurangabad and Rohtas where water level was less - sand mining/extraction was done below and near the bridge pillars.
Note: The report of July 27, 2020 was uploaded to the NGT site on August 13, 2020