History of Illegal
excavation of Blackstone quarry in
Dankari Hill under Dharmashala Tahasil
of Jajpur district, Odisha
1.
Dankari Black stone quarry was
created with an area Ac 41.50 out of Ac 773.60 plot No. 600, Khata No. 221 of Village
Dankari and leased out in favour of
Sribash Jena , Village-saroi, PS-Dharmashala Dist-Jajpur
for a period of three Years
through short term lease from 1.11.2002 to 31.10.2005.
2.
This was renewed for a period of
another 3 years from 1.11.2005 to
31.10.2008 and also further renewed from
1.11.2008 to 31.10.2011.
3.
During this period , the lease holder extracted huge
blackstone illegally beyond lease area
and cause huge revenue loss to the state exchequer which
was covered by media
during that time. Though
the local people made complaint, no
action was taken as he enjoys political
patronage of Ruling Biju Janata Dal
party.
4.
However, after expiry of lease period, the lease holder Sribash Jena again applied before Tahasildar ,
dharmashala for renewal of
the lease of Dankari Blackstone
quarry for a period of another three
years. Tahasildar, Dharmashala reject his application in pursuant to the
circular No. 1470 dt. 9.9.2008 of Board of Revenue, Cuttack. He advised to
Sribash Jena to participate in public auction for lease and gave him rejection
letter.
5.
Being aggrieved by the order of
Tahasildar dt. 15.7.2011, Sri Sribash Jena filed writ petition bearing No. W.P.(C) 20799/2011 challenging the circular
No. 1470 dt. 6.9.2008 of the Member of Board of Revenue, Odisha, Cuttack.
6.
After hearing the matter, the hon’ble
High Court passed the judgement on 28.3.2012. As per High Court order, the
Tahasildar, Dharmashala recommended the said case record to the Sub-Collector,
Jajpur on 9.4. 2012.The Sub-Collector, Jajpur approved the same and the source
was settled through auction. It was not finalized and postponed due to another
writ petition bearing No. W.P. (C) No. 9876/2012 filed by Niranjan Behera.
7.
Being aggrieved, Sribash Jena filed
another Writ Petition bearing No. W.P. (C
) No. 10886/2012 in High Court . the Hon’ble Court disposed of the case on 3.10.2012.
8.
Finally, the Dankari Blackstone
Quarry was settled in favour of the petitioner on long term basis for a period of five years
by virtue of order passed by Hon’ble High Court subject to compliation of Environment clearance.
9.
As per order of High Court, Sribash Jena
obtained the consent to established from the State Pollution Control Board vide letter No. 3617 dt. 26.11.12. Then
the Competent authority entered into an agreement with Sribash Jena on 5.12.2012.
10. But as per
order of High Court, he neither
obtained Environment clearance
nor Consent to Operate from the Competent authority. After getting agreement signed, he started blackstone quarry in the
leased area illegally. Lakhs of
tons of Blackstone was
extracted causing huge
loss of crores of rupees
to the State Exchequer.
11. In 2014, Sri
Sarbeswar Behura , local RTI Activist ,
after obtaining all the
information under RTI exposed operation of illegal blackstone quarry publicly
and demanded inquiry into it. The
Media covered the news
about illegal quarry being
operated in Dankari Hill in the
knowledge of the Tahsildar and
District administration.
12.Then, the Regional Officer, State Pollution Control
Board, Kalinganagar vide letter No. 3349 dated 26.11.2015
directed Tahasildar
Dharmashala to stop illegal
blackstone quarry. The
Tahasildar vide letter no. 3408 dt. 27.11.2015
direcetd Sribash Jena to stop illegal mining activities in Dankari.
But Srbash Jena who was enjoying political patronage continued
illegal mining activities.
13.In the
meantime , the OMMC ( Amendment) Rule ,
2016 came into force on 14th December, 2016 . Sribash
Jena who was undertaking illegal mining activity having unholy alliance with Revenue Officials and local MLA played
another trick of prepared mining
plan of the Dankari Blackstone
quarry and the approved
mining plan with requisite
fees was submitted before
the State Environment Assessment Authority by the Tahasildar , dharmashala on 22.1.2016
for issuance of environment clearance.
14. However,
sarbeswar Behura, RTI Activist continued
exposing huge extraction of blackstone from illegal quarry and
highlighted it in the media demanding immediate action against Sribash Jena.
The local people also joined with Sarbeswar Behura and demanded an inquiry into
illegal quarry and amount of loss to the State
exchequer.
15.On receipt of
allegation petitions from the local people, the administration was forced
to conduct an inquiry. The Collector, SP, Sub-Collector, Jajpur and other related officials
visited Dankari Black stone
quarry and found that blackstone was unevenly extracted and quarry was put to operation
in an unscientific manner by
Sribash Jena. According the Collector,
Jajpur submitted the report to the
Government vide letter No. 129 dt. 10.5.2016.
16. The Collector, Jajpur vide letter No. 5547
dt. 3.12.2015 directed the Deputy Director of Mines, Jajpur Road to make an assessment about the total quantum of blackstone
extracted from quarry over
the years from 2013-14 to
2015-16.
17. The Deputy
Director of mines vide letter No. 514
dt. 15.3.2016 submitted a detailed report along with
calculation sheet with cross sectional plan in graphic sheet and GPs
coordination of the quarry
area in the graphic map and thereby
calculated that volume of stones extracted has been computed to the
tune of 7, 33,81,012 Cum has been extracted from Dankari Blackstone quarry from 2002-03 to 2015.
18.The Tahasildar, dharmashala vide letter no. 1584
dt. 7.5.2016 reported that
Sribash Jena has lifted 14,15,596 Cum of blackstone from the sources from 2002 to till 27.11.2015 and deposited an amount of Rs. 6,64,89,908.00 towards royalty and Govt. dues.
19.Thus there is huge gap between realization of Royalty and extraction of Blackstone from the quarry which leads to
misappropriation of royalty by Sribash
Jena and huge loss to the state
exchequer.
20. The
Collector , Jajpur vide letter No. 2262
dt. 18.5.2016 instructed the Tahasildar , Dharmashala to realise
the differential royalty from the
petitioner for extraction of excess blackstone
from Dankari Blackstone quarry.
21. The
Tahasildar issued demand notice vide
letter no. 1878 dt. 28.5.2016 to
Sribash Jena to deposit the
differential amount of Rs.
58,62,79,633.00. Being aggrieved,
Sribash Jena filed a W.P. ( C )
No. 9885/2016 before Orissa High Court challenging
demand notice issued by the Tahasildar for
realization of differential
amount.
22.The Hon’ble
High Court in their order dt.
28.9.2016 quashed the
order of Tahasildar and directed
to pass fresh order in accordance with law
after giving opportunity of hearing
to the petitioner.
23. As per order
of High Court, Tahasildar, Dharmashala
conducted hearing of the case on 6.1.2017
in the presence of all the parties
including Sribash Jena and it was
decided to reassess the quantity
of extraction of blackstone from 2002 to 2015 by the
Expert Team of Deputy Director Mines ,
jajpur in a survey through scientific way. The Deputy
Director of Mines vide letter no. 1763 dt. 20.9.17 expressed
his inability to conduct the survey
due to non-availability of
scientific equipment.
24.Then, the Director
of mines , Bhubaneswar was
requested vide District office letter
No. 3185 dt. 29.11.2017 for
reassessment of the Minor mineral
extracted from Dankari Black Stone quarry
and damage done/ loss of revenue
to Govt. exchequer. But no reassement
was done by Director of Mines. Sribash Jena continued
to extract blackstone illegally.
25.It is very
interesting to note here that
the Forest and Environment Dept.,
Government of Odisha vide letter No. 4363
dt. 2.3.2017 instructed the Collector, Jajpur to file case
against the lease holder Sribash
Jena under section 15 and 19 of
Environment Protection Act, 1986 for
extraction of minor minerals from
from Dankari Blackstone quarry without obtaining environment clearance.
26. Despite several
orders, the District administration did
not take any action
against Sribash Jena and rather
allowed him to loot
blackstone.
27.Astonishingly
, expressing their helplessness
before mighty Sribash Jena , the
whole district administration to save
their face filed
a case bearing No. 2 ( C ) C.C No. 05/2017 in the
court of JMFC , Chandikhole against Sribash Jena for
violating the provision of
EP Act, 1986. As usual and as
predicted , this case is still
sub-judice in the court
of JMFC, Chandikhole. The
District administration did not pursue the case
just to allow Sribash Jena
to continue his loot of blackstone
on his own wish. It is alleged that all the district officials were bribed huge
money for it.
28. Having visualized visible nexus of the whole
district administration with Sribash Jena, Sri Sarbeswar Bhura filed
a complaint case O.A. bearing No. 604/2018 before
National Green tribunal seeking an inquiry into
illegal operation of mining activity in 41.50 acres of forest land in Dankari Hill.
29. On
31.8.2018, the Hon’ble NGT passed order
directing the Secretary, dept. of
Forest and Environment , Govt. of odisha
to constitute a joint inspection team with representative of State Pollution Control Board, SEIAA Odisha,
Collector, Jajpur to ascertain
the facts by visiting the site and take appropriate steps within one month.
30. As per
recommendation of Joint enquiry
team, the Director, Environment -cum-Special secretary,
department of Forest and
Environment instructed to the Collector, Jajpur to cancel Environment
Clearance issued by DEIAA,
Jajpur.
31.On
12.10.2018, the Collector, Jajpur
revoked all the environment clearance issued in favour of the lessee
of Dankari hill area.
32. After obtaining
joint enquiry report, the Hon’ble NGT , New Delhi in its order dt. 4.1.2019 directed
to the State Government to
deposit an interim compensation of Rs.
25 crore with Central pollution Control
Board within one month pending for final assessment conducted
by the joint committee consisting
of representative of CPCB, Indian School
of Mines, Dhanabad, Forest Research
Institute , Dehradun, Chairman, SIEAA.
33.This order
of NGT could not be carried out
because prior to it,
Sribash Jena challenged it in
Supreme Court vide Civil Appeal No.
10113/2018 and got a stary
order on 26.10.2018.
34.On
19.3.2024, the Hon’ble Supreme
Court vacated the
stay order and remanded back
the case for fresh consideration by the Hon’ble NGT, New Delhi.
35. As per SC
order, The Original Application No. 604/2018 ( sarbeswar Behura vs Union of
India and others ) was heard
by NGT, New Delhi on 16.5.2024
and all the opposite parties
were directed to file
their submission before 20th August, 2024.
36.The next
date for
hearing of the case is fixed
on 29.11.24
37.The Case was
heard in NGT and another
date was fixed
for hearing in the
month of February, 25 , as
the Govt. sought more time
to submit response.
By sarbeswar
Behura
Petitioner
