Cuttack: The collector & district magistrate (Khurda) Chanchal Rana has informed the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that FIRs have been initiated against the officer and lessee involved in illegal extraction of laterite stone from Bariko quarry under Tangi tehsil.NGT’s east zone bench in Kolkata was hearing a petition regarding alleged illegal quarrying in the form of excess mining by the lessee on May 23.In an affidavit, Rana said the criminal action has been initiated after it was found on examination of records that extraction of laterite stone from the alleged quarry has been made by the lessee prior to receipt of statutory clearances, violating the provisions of Odisha Minor Minerals Concession Rules, 2016.Hence, FIR has been registered against ex-tehsildar (Tangi) Yugal Kishore Mishra for issuing the transit permits before the grant of statutory clearances causing wrongful gains to the lessee at the cost of the state exchequer, the affidavit said. The FIRs were registered at the Tangi police station on May 5 on the instructions of the deputy director of mines (Khurda) on the basis of report of sub-collector (Khurda), the affidavit said.The bench comprising Sunil Agarwal (Judicial Member) and Dr Arun Kumar Verma posted the matter to Aug 8. Madhusudan Palai and other residents of the nearby area filed the petition. Advocates Sankar Prasad Pani and Ashutosh Padhy represented the petitioners.Earlier, the tribunal had constituted an inquiry committee to ascertain the veracity of the allegations in the petition that the illegal quarrying in the form of excess mining is being done by the lessee.However, the tribunal had ordered a fresh inquiry by the collector & district magistrate (Khurda) on March 7 as the inquiry report had not addressed the allegation about illegal mining prior to grant of consent to operate (CTO) by the lessee.In the affidavit filed after fresh inquiry the collector & district magistrate (Khurda) further said to prevent illegal mining from the alleged quarry, the tehsildar (Tangi) had conducted enforcement several times and seized a number of vehicles and imposed heavy penalty and royalty. On seizure, vehicles were handed over to the local police of Tangi for further action, if the owner of the seized vehicles failed to pay the penalty.