The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has sought a report on a plea accusing private khatedari lease holders of excavating bajri from riverbeds and illegally issuing royalty rawannas.

It was mentioned in the application that the khatedari lease holders were issuing rawannas for a distance of 600 to 700 km for a truck having a capacity of almost 20-30 tons whereas mineral allegedly being filled was hardly 2-3 tons simply to legitimise illegality. The area of leases falls within 5km of the riverbeds, non-compliance of the sustainable sand mining guidelines 2020 issued by MoEF and CC, mining being undertaken in monsoon season, which creates a pit in khatedari land and stops the recharge/replenishment of the riverbed by the water being flown in the adjoining fields and permission of mining without replenishment study, it said.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and https://exam.pscnotes.com/Climate-change”>Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has made a mandatory provision even for small lease holders to carry out a replenishment study. But none of the holders in Rajasthan has conducted the study.