A division bench of justices Balaram KC and Bharat Raj Uprety ordered the authorities to immediately stop the export of sand and aggregates and form a technical committee to study environmental, financial and other related impacts caused by the crusher industry. [break]
"The authorities are hereby ordered to stop exports of stones, aggregates and sand for now and resume export only if the technical committee mandated by the court says it is financially and environmentally viable to excavate stones, aggregates and sand by the concerned crusher plants," the court order states.
The court order further says, "It has been found that overloaded trucks carrying aggregates have caused largely damaged highways. We hereby direct the government to mobilize police to strictly stop overloaded trucks while carrying sand and to install weighing machines along the highways to check if any vehicle is carrying loads more than its capacity."
The bench has instructed the authorities to immediately stop operation of crusher plants run without registration or without license renewal.
- Immediately stop export of sand and aggregates
- Form a technical committee to study environmental, financial and other related matters
- Stop exports of sand and stones until the committee comes up with a detailed report
- Mobilize police personnel to strictly stop overloaded trucks
- Install weighing machines to stop overloaded trucks
- Immediately stop operation of illegally-run crusher plants
Lawyer Narayan Prasad Devkota had filed a writ petition at the SC following media reports that stated the whole Tarai region is at risk of desertification due to unrestrained excavation of sand, grits and stones and that overloaded trucks exporting these materials to India have been causing damage to the roads.
The report prepared by secretary at the Prime Minister´s Office, Lila Mani Paudyal, has recommended seizure of illegally-run crusher plants in the Tarai and Shivalik range.
Following secretary-level report, the subcommittee formed by the Natural Resource and Means Committee of the parliament has also recommended to the government to stop illegally-operated crusher plants and monitor the impact of such plants.
But the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies (MoCS) has lifted a ban on the export of sand and boulders to India.
The division bench has also concluded Environmental Bench needs to be formed to check the impact of crusher plants.
"We also order authorities concerned to inform the chief justice to set up Environmental Bench," the court order further states.
The parliamentary subcommittee has also asked the Ministry of Local Development to immediately shut down such crushers that have been transferring the Tarai into desert.
The report prepared by Secretary Paudyal also states that the DDCs awarded contracts for excavation without identifying appropriate areas for the work and the use of heavy machinery including excavators has caused destruction of the physical infrastructure including bridges and roads.
“The situation is such that the state has to spend more money to repair the infrastructure than the revenue generated from sand and grit export,” states the report.
The parliamentary sub-committee´s report has found that the government has collected only Rs 1 billion in the last two fiscal years from the exports while the maintenance of the damaged roads will cost at least Rs 11 billion.
Subcommittee´s investigation has shown that some 570 kilometers of highway has been badly damaged due to the movement of overloaded trucks.
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