Petition for recovery of royalty and penalty from L&T Company

Illegal mineral mining in Vaijapur

Aurangabad, March 1:

Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice SG Dighe of the Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed the district collector of Aurangabad to submit information regarding the issues in the petition regarding illegal excavation of secondary minerals and damage to the weirs in Vaijapur tehsil during the next hearing.

A petition was filed requesting to collect royalties and fines from the L&T Company, the contractor of Samruddhi Expressway, by setting up a special inquiry team at the secretary level to determine the responsibility for illegal mining of secondary minerals and damage to the weirs and provide compensation to the affected farmers from the royalty.

Former Sarpanch of Palkhed in Vaijapur tehsil Nandkishore Jadhav filed the petition through adv Siddheshwar S Thombre. According to the petition, the L&T company had lodged a complaint with the district collector alleging illegal mining of secondary minerals from the lands of farmers in Palkhed, Shivrai, Mali Sagaj, Bendwadi and other villages and digging of protective walls of several ponds. The police did not file a case even after the sub-divisional water conservation officer handed over a letter to the Vaijapur police asking to file a case against the L&T company officials for endangering lives and damaging government property.

In some villages, bogus panchnama and excavation permits were obtained from the district collector by forging bogus signatures of Tehsildars. However, the district collector did not take any action, the petitioner said. After the hearing the court gave the above orders.