Showing zero tolerance to public servants who allowed illegal mining in the Aravalli Hills despite a ban in place since 2002, the Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to penalise such officers posted in the three districts of Mewat, Gurgaon and Faridabad during the past five years. The Forest Bench of the Supreme Court passed the order after examining a report of the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) assisting the court in environmental matters which reported rampant illegal mining in Rajasthan and Haryana districts adjoining the eco-sensitive zone of Aravalli hills.The bench asked the CEC to prepare the list of all officers posted with the concerned department responsible for implementing the court order within six weeks. Though a complete ban on illegal mining in Haryana came into force in 2002, it was reinforced in 2009. “It concerns implementation of our order. We want the information in six weeks,” the Bench of Justices JS Khehar, J Chelameswar and AK Sikri told advocate AN Rao, appearing for the expert body. In this regard, the CEC would access the State Government records for the period from 2009 onwards to locate which official was concerned with the implementation of the Court order. The Bench even asked the CEC to propose the penal action to be initiated against such officers for showing contempt to Court order. The CEC had recommended in its report to impose "exemplary punitive action" against those miners who exceeded their permissible mining capacity. In cases of mining leases operating without requisite forest and environment approvals, the Committee suggested immediate closure. Till mining operations remain suspended, the CEC told the Court that no new stone crushing unit should be established or operated in Mewat and Alwar. With mining on Aravalli hills situated in Haryana banned by Supreme Court as early as on October 29, 2002 (with the exception being for Faridabad), the Committee discovered that since the beginning of this year, illegal mining witnessed a "sharp increase" in many villages of Mewat. It attributed this increase to "lack of adequate livelihood opportunities, unemployment, economic and social backwardness, nature of terrain and the huge gap between demand and supply of construction material because of continued ban on mining and consequent steep increase in the prices of construction materials.” The extent of damage caused to the Aravallis was shocking as the CEC partly proved the allegations made by a PIL filed by Bandhua Mukti Morcha, an NGO working in the interest of labourers employed in the mining zone. The PIL had submitted a list of 28 villages in Haryana alone where illegal mining was rampant. The apex court had sought a report from the CEC on this petition even as it asked the Haryana Government to explain the violation of its ban order.