Division Bench also stays in-stream mining until June 4 The Madras High Court Bench here on Wednesday restrained Public Works Department (PWD) from using machines to quarry sand from various sites in Cauvery and Kollidam rivers flowing through Karur, Tiruchi, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts. A Division Bench of Justices V. Ramasubramanian and V.M. Velumani passed the interim order on a batch of writ petitions seeking a ban on quarrying from the two riverbeds. It, however, permitted the PWD to carry out mining operations manually for meeting out emergent needs. Though Additional Advocate General K. Chellapandian opposed imposition of interim ban on mechanised quarrying of sand, the judges said preventing the use of machines for quarrying until June 4, the next date of hearing, would not really spell doom for the PWD. On the other hand, the loss caused to ecology, if machines were permitted to be used until the end of a month-long summer vacation for the court in May, could not be compensated later. The Bench also said the PWD should also not indulge in in-stream mining which involved mechanical removal of sand directly from the active channel of rivers and streams and posed the threat of altering the geomorphic structure of the streams. The present batch of writ petitions had challenged an order passed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in Chennai on February 24, refusing to restrain the PWD from quarrying sand in more than 15 different locations in the Cauvery and the Kollidam riverbeds. According to the writ petitioners, they had initially approached the NGT on the ground that clearance obtained by the PWD from the State-Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority was not valid in law since the authority was not empowered to issue such clearance. It was also pointed out that the PWD had not obtained clearance in accordance with Union Ministry of Environment and Forests’ new guidelines which came into force across the country from December 24, 2013. The NGT concurred with the submissions. Nevertheless, it directed the PWD to comply with the new requirements within six months and in the meantime permitted the officials to continue quarrying “in view of economic and social needs and public interest at large.”