Bombay high court disposes of PIL opposing mining in Surjagarh

NAGPUR: The Nagpur bench of Bombay high court on Wednesday disposed of a public interest litigation (PIL) demanding inquiry into mining activities at Surjagarh in Gadchiroli.

A division bench comprising justices Atul Chandurkar and Vrushali Joshi directed petitioner Deepak Dixit, a businessman from Chandrapur, to approach the Maharashtra government first with his grievances.

He was granted liberty to approach the court again if he was not satisfied with the government’s response.

Through counsel Mahesh Dhatrak, the petitioner contended that the private company — Lloyds Metals and Energy Limited — was engaged in illegal mining at Surjagarh.

According to him, the area was reserved for mining by the central government as it falls in zudpi jungle. Centre’s permission was required for selling the surplus minerals, a condition violated by the company. Moreover, the state environment department had also imposed certain conditions for extracting iron ore, which is of top quality, but the company violated these conditions too, Dixit claimed.

Alleging that taxpayers’ money was being wasted, the petitioner prayed for instituting an independent inquiry into the handing over of the mining contract to the private company by the government and subsequent violations by it.