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Chandigarh, Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today urged the Union Minister of Environment, Forests & Climate Change Mr. Parkash Javedakar and sought his personal intervention to exempt the standalone activity of mining of brick earth and ordinary earth, having mining area up to five hectares and depth up to 1.5 m from obtaining the environmental clearance as required under Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification dated September 14, 2006 as amended from time to time.
In a letter to Mr. Javedakar, the Chief Minister requested him to get the necessary amendment incorporated in the legislation so as to exempt the brick kiln activity from the ambit of EIA notification. He apprised the Union Minister of Environment that manufacturing of red bricks using ordinary earth was a centuries old practice in India. Since it was a small scale activity regarding digging only up to a certain depth and there were about 3000 brick kilns in Punjab manufacturing burnt bricks using ordinary earth.
Mr. Badal cited as per original EIA notification dated September 14, 2006 issued by the Ministry of Environment & Forests, mining of minor minerals in an area less than five hectares fell under the ambit of said notification and hence did not require any environment clearance. However, according the orders dated February 27, 2012 passed by the Supreme Court of india in the matter of Deepak Kumar etc. V/s State of Haryana & others, the projects of mining of minor minerals ever in area less than five hectares were required to obtain in the Environment clearance (EC). In compliance with the orders of the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Environment & Forests vide its OM dated May 18, 2012 directed that all the projects of mining of minor minerals would require prior EC irrespective of the size of the mining area.
The Chief Minister further informed Mr. Javedakar that as per the practice ordinary earth was mined from fields in small stretches up to five hectares and usually up to a depth of 1 m to 1.5 m by the individual Brick Kiln Owners (BKOs). The BKOs took land on lease from farmers for lifting the earth and land was made fit again for agricultural purposes. Punjab was primarily and agricultural state and land was very scarce. Usually, small/marginal farmers give their land on lease for mining of brick earth/ordinary earth and same was restored as early as possible after mining to make it fit for agricultural purposes. As such this activity does not have any environmental implication. Moreover, this lease was generally for a limited period of up to six months or at the most one year. Thus, it was very difficult for the BKOs/individuals to obtain the environmental clearance for such small scale activity within this period.
