Conservator of river permit mandatory

By S A Ishaqui

Hyderabad,Aug. 10: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Monday declared that calling tenders for granting sand quarrying lease on river beds without getting clearance from the river conservator was illegal.

A division bench comprising Justice Goda Raghuram and Justice Ramesh Ranganathan was dealing with a PIL challenging the lease on Krishna river bed to a contractor at Kollipara village in Guntur district without getting the prior clearance from the river conservator.

The bench held that Rule 9-B (6) of AP Minor Mineral Concessional Rules is mandatory and the authorities should strictly adhere to the rule while issuing the tender notification for granting lease.

The court declared that the Rule 23 of WALTA (Water and Land Tree Act) was in no way applicable while granting lease of sand quarries in the state.
While allowing the PIL the court suspended the lease granted by the mines and geology department at Kollipara and directed the respondents not to extract sand from the sand reach.

Mr A. Sanjay Kumar, counsel for the petitioner told the court that the AP Minor Mineral Concessional Rules mandate the department to obtain a groundwater feasibility report from the river conservator and the groundwater department before the notification for the lease is issued.

He contended that the department has been taking shelter under Rule 23 of the WALTA rule by wrongly interpreting that Rule 9-B (6) does not mandate the prior clearance from the groundwater department.

Mr Sivaraju Srinivas, counsel for the mines and geology department, told the court that they got a report from the authorities after the notification and the authorities permitted quarrying sand.

The court said that getting clearance after granting lease is bad under law. It said that it cannot consider the post clearance in this case as sand quarrying is not considered as a Republic function.