The High Court has summoned the report within two weeks, the village head of the Gram Sabha will be included in the task force.
Nainital. The Uttarakhand High Court took up the matter of re-filed PIL regarding non-compliance of earlier order against illegal mining in Kosi river of Udhamsingh Nagar. After hearing the case, a division bench of Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Alok Kumar Verma directed the state government to set up a special task force in every district within two weeks as per the guidelines issued earlier to stop illegal mining. Present the report in the court. The village head of every gram sabha has also been asked to be included in this committee.
The next hearing of the case has been fixed on April 6. The court has also ordered not to take any further action till the pendency of the PIL on the issue of mining leases to private people in the Kosi river under the river dredging policy. During the hearing today, Secretary Mining Dr. Pankaj Kumar Pandey and other officers appeared personally.
According to the case, Ramesh Lal, a resident of Udhamsingh Nagar filed a public interest litigation in the High Court saying that illegal mining is being done in the Kosi river of Udhamsingh Nagar for many years. On this, the High Court had issued guidelines in 2019 to set up a special task force to stop illegal mining. Despite this, the task force has not yet been formed. The petitioner says that in defiance of the orders given earlier by the court, illegal mining is being done here again. Therefore, contempt action should be taken against the guilty officers for not following the order of the court
