Cuttack: The National Green Tribunal has issued a show cause notice to Rail Vikash Nigam Ltd (RVNL) over the alleged large scale "illegal and unlawful extraction of minor minerals" in its construction of the Angul-Duburi-Sukinda broad-gauge line.

The green body's east zone bench in Calcutta asked why work on the project should not be stopped after a petition alleging "indiscriminate and illegal mining" of soil, morrum, earth for the construction without environmental safeguards was filed.

The petition, filed by Keonjhargada resident Sasee Bhoosan Patnaik, alleges that the illegal extraction has put lives and livelihood of people living along the sides of the under threat.

After a preliminary hearing on September 22, the tribunal had asked the Keonjhar collector to inspect the site and submit a report when the matter was taken up again.

"When the matter came up for hearing on Thursday, nobody appeared on behalf of the state government. Taking note of it, the bench of Justice S.P. Wangdi (juducial member) and Justice P.C. Mishra (expert member) posted the matter to November 21, while issuing the notice to RVNL," petitioner counsel Sankar Prasad Pani said on Saturday.

"The bench issued a fresh order to the collector to inspect the area and verify the correctness of the allegations and submit a report on the next date," Pani said.

RVNL, through two contractors, is constructing the 97km Angul-Duburi-Sukinda railway link from Baghuapal in Jajpur district to Budhapank in Angul district. The construction requires huge quantities of soil, morrum and earth for its earth bed. The construction of the earth bed between the 19th and 47th kilometre of the line is underway and making rapid progress.

The petition has alleged that around two lakh cubic metres of minor minerals - soil, earth and morrum - had already been illegally extracted from adjoining lands without permission from local tehsildars, environmental clearance, forest clearance and consent order of the Odisha State Pollution Control Board.

According to the petition, the soil, morrum, earth had been extracted from adjoining villages in Muktaposi, Siriamalia, Kapasi, Patharakhamba of Parjang tehsil and Khairinali, Tangarapada, Nuapani, Baligorada, Banguru, Sibalaposi, Chulia, Altuma, Rekula Kamakhyanagar of Kamakhyanagar tehsil and other villages adjacent to the railway line.