Builders may challenge sand mining ban

NEW DELHI: Builders are planning to challenge the order of the National Green Tribunal that stayed all sand mining activities in riverbeds without environmental clearance, the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India said on Wednesday. The ban, say developers, will aid in black marketing, give a fillip to the sand mafia and increase property prices.

"The ban on sand mining adds to the ever increasing burden on the real estate industry," says Lalit Kumar Jain, chairman of CREDAI. "It is shocking that NGT thinks sand mining causes floods in rivers. Silting, on the contrary, allows free flow of rivers and prevents floods," he said. Developers argue that sand is one of the most essential inputs for any construction and without proper availability projects across the country will suffer.

"The cost of sand is going up and it has become more attractive to black marketers," says Sushil Mantri, managing director of Mantri Developers. Planners, while issuing building permissions, must assess the requirement of material like sand or metal, says CREDAI.

The environmental tribunal gave its interim order on Monday on a petition filed by the National Green Tribunal Bar Association after the suspension of IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal by the UP government. The officer had initiated a drive against illegal sand mining in the Gautam Buddh Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh.

"This removal of minerals from river beds is causing serious threat to the flow of the river, forests upon river bank and most seriously to the environment of these areas," the order said, adding that "besides violations of law, the mining activity is being carried out on a large scale, causing the state revenue loss which may be running into lakhs of crores of rupees."