By IANS,
Lucknow : Taking serious note of the recent death of labourers during a mining operation in Sonebhadra, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court directed the Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary to personally look into the matter and ensure that no mining operation was carried in the state without adequate environmental clearance.
The directive was issued by a bench of Justice D.P. Singh and Justice Satish Chandra, while dismissing a review petition filed against its April 29, 2011 judgement wherein the high court had affirmed the central notification of Sep 14, 2006, which necessitated clearance from Union ministry of environment in allotment of mining lease in the entire
state.
The bench observed that “in case mining was permitted without environmental clearance, it may cause irreparable loss to the environment of the state.” In its earlier judgement in April 2011, the high court had said that if the mining lease had been allotted to any contractor without environmental clearance, he could obtain the same till June 30,
2011.
The review petition before the bench had sought extension of time in this matter, something which the court rejected on grounds that the demand came after a long time since the Centre had issued the notification.