The Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board has informed the High Court at Jabalpur that of the total 4192 mines in the State 2697 mines were operating illegally without obtaining necessary environmental clearances. This was revealed by the State Pollution Control Board through an affidavit submitted before the division bench comprising of Justice Deepak Mishra and Justice R.S Jha in response to a notice linked with a petition by one Ajay Dubey. The counsel for the petitioner, Radhe Lal Gupta, urged the Court the other day to order immediate closure of mines that were operating illegally. He also sought action against the owners running these mines. The next hearing in this case is on March 19. Under the law environmental clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests is necessary for category (a) mining lease holders (those who have been granted lease for five hectares and above) and it is only on receipt of Environmental Clearance that the Pollution Control Board may grant consent to the mining lease holders for operating the mines. In the case of category (b) mines (those who have been granted lease for less than five hectares), it is not necessary to obtain environmental clearance under the Environment Protection Act and the Board is competent to consider application for grant of consent under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981. The State Pollution Control Board has submitted before the Court as respondent that of the 4192 mines in the State, 630 mines have a lease of more than five hectares (category A) and 3562 mines have a lease of less than 5 hectares (category B). It has further been stated that a total of 1495 mines (239 category A mines and 1256 category B mines) have been granted consent by the Board. The total number of mines operating without consent is 2697 (391 Category A mines and 2306 category B mines). The Pollution Control has also informed the Court that prosecution has been launched against 29 mines and closure notices have been issued to 2540 mines under section 31-P and Section 33-A of the Air Act & Water Act. The Pollution Control Board has told the Court that merely issuing closure notices is "hardly sufficient'. Even prosecution has not yielded any positive result as during the period of prosecution, the defaulters continue to operate the mines. It has further been pointed out that the Board does not have adequate powers to effectively take measures for stopping operations except to issue direction to the concerned authorities under Section 31-A of Air Act and Section 33-A of Water Act.