MUMBAI, November 6: The ban on quarrying in Thane-Navi Mumbai has been lifted indicating an end to the hostilities between the Shiv Sena chief, Bal Thackeray, and the Environment and Forests Minister, Ganesh Naik.The ban, ordered by Thackeray after a site visit in June, was perceived as a ploy to cut Naik to size. Naik, whose family has large interests in quarrying in Navi Mumbai, was being seen in Sena circles as a threat to the leadership of the Thane district chief of the party, Anand Dighe.Senior officials in Mantralaya, however, have been taken aback by the abruptness of the decision. ``Chief Minister Joshi has not even gone through the report of a study group set up to assess the environmental impact of quarrying,'' a senior official of the revenue department told Express Newsline.On June 10, following a surprise visit to the Thane-Navi Mumbai-Belapur belt, Thackeray had asked Joshi to ban quarrying In Navi Mumbai to save Parsik Hills from environmental degradation. The Sena chief was accompanied by District Collector Ujjwal Uke and CIDCO managing director, Vishwas Dhumal.While Naik had met Thackeray soon after the ban was imposed, of late he had begun threatening to challenge the ban in court. This may have prompted Joshi to unconditionally withdraw the order. While Naik was unavailable for comment, it was learnt that during his one of his meetings with Joshi, he made it clear that the ban order was bad in law. ``The quarry owners have a valid licence, and it was improper to ban a legal activity,'' a Sena minister said.The second point raised by Naik was about employment. He had said that the ban had rendered 30,000 workers jobless and had brought construction activities in the Thane-Navi Mumbai-Belapur belt to a standstill. However, few agree with Naik on this count. While the ban had minimal effect of quarrying, construction activities had continued uninterrupted.As per official records, there are 160 quarries in the Thane-Belapur belt. While 18 are on forest land, 128 are on land owned by CIDCO. The number of illegal quarries is estimated to be around 150 in the Thane-Navi Mumbai-Belapur belt, according to a senior forest official.
