Court stays allotment of sand ghats

Mumbai: The Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court rapped the revenue department for not taking due care of public property and assets while allotting contracts for sand mining.

The observations were made after the petitioner informed the court that the revenue department had allowed the winning bidder to delay submission of funds which was a loss to the government exchequer. The HC also set aside the auction wherein the norms of the sand ghat policy of the state had been flouted.

A division bench of justices B.P. Dharmadhikari and Arun Upadhye was hearing a writ petition filed by a bidder who had failed to win the bidding process that had been started by the revenue department for allotting sand ghats at Nagpur, Bhandara and Gondia districts at the start of year 2018. The petition pointed to the fact that the bidding had not only been conducted in violation of norms but had also relaxed certain criteria to favour the winning bidder. One of the criteria was depositing 75 per cent of the bid amount within 15 days of the bid being won by the bidder.

After hearing the arguments, the court directed the petition to be registered as a public interest litigation and stayed the operation of the outcome of the auction. The court further directed the authorities to stop mining activities at the sand ghats and to take possession of sand excavated from the ghats.

As per the revised sand ghats policy, mining requires sanction of the gram sabha and it could be permitted only if there was sufficient rain and water flow in the river bed for the accumulation of the sand which could then be mined. The petitioners also pointed out that though there had been a drought like situation, sand mining contracts had been given out by the revenue department, which resulted in the ire of the high court against the revenue officer.