BHUBANESWAR: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has imposed an interim penalty of ₹ ₹20 crore on state-owned Rail Vikash Nigam Limited (RVNL) over two of its contractors lifting huge quantities of soil and morrum for construction of a railway line in Odisha without the approval of local revenue authorities.
In an order, a bench of NGT headed by chairperson justice Adarsh Goel said that pending final calculation of compensation amount as per norms laid down by the Supreme Court, RVNL has to deposit ₹20 crore with Odisha Pollution Control Board towards the value of the mined material, cost of the environmental services forgone forever, deterrent element and cost of restoration within two months.
“From the data available before this Tribunal, it is clear that value of mined material is more than ₹20 crores. The royalty collected itself is more than Rs. 3 Crores, which is said to be 10% of the value of the mined material which is said to be more than 1800000 cum. Thus, minimum value of mined material can safely be taken to be ₹20 crore. If deposit is not made, the district magistrate of Dhenkanal may recover the amount by using coercive measures,” the NGT ordered.
