CHANDIGARH, Sept. 4 -- The stone crushers in Haryana can now inch closer to people's doorsteps with the Nayab Singh Saini government issuing a fresh notification that reduces the mandatory distance from highways, towns, municipal corporations and villages, rolling back the stricter curbs imposed nine years ago. The September 2 notification issued by the environment, forest and wildlife department of Haryana under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, supersedes May 11, 2016 notification. It lays down new "siting criteria norms", emission standards, and mandatory pollution control measures for all stone crushers "to maintain ecological balance" in the state to "prevent environmental degradation and avoid human health hazards." The move also comes eight months after the Punjab and Haryana high court in December 2024 upheld 2016 notification pertaining to stone crusher units and dismissed stone crusher owners' pleas, who were told to shift their units following the 2016 notification. The stone crusher owners had argued before the high court that their units were established after taking all statutory permissions and now at a belated stage they can't be asked to shift operations. In other petitions, some other conditions were also under challenge. According to Rao Narbir Singh, industries and commerce, environment, forest and wildlife minister, the latest notification has been issued after lots of brainstorming and as per the demands of the people of the state. "This policy has been prepared to strictly protect the interests of Haryana, generate revenue and avenues of employment," Singh said, adding that at the core of this new policy is the "public interest" only. "A new clause has been introduced that stone crushers will have to maintain 100 metre distance from any mining area and hillock. The mining department wanted this condition even as I was officially against this. That's the level of transparency we have ensured in drafting this policy. It will benefit the state," the minister said. The latest policy identifies zones and spells out other conditions such as distance from urban centres, forest, educational institutions and state and national highways etc. The stone crushers will have to maintain a minimum 500 metre distance from national and state highways, which was 1 km as per the 2016 notification. The minimum distance from the limits of the nearest municipal corporation (MC) of the same district has been brought down to 2km (down from 3 km earlier), while the minimum distance required from the nearest town, city, municipal limits has been reduced to 1km from 1.5 km earlier. The notification gives go ahead to set up stone crushers at 500 metre from the nearest "village phirni" or abadi-deh, even as in the 2016 notification the distance required from the nearest village phirni was 1 km. Also the minimum distance required from "approved water supply scheme open to sky of 20 KL capacity" has been squeezed from 1.5km in 2016 notification to 500 metre now. The minimum distance required from education institutions will be 500 metre. However, the minimum distance from the limits of National Capital Territory of Delhi has not been changed and kept at 5km. The stone crushers must also be at least 2 km from national parks, 1 km from wildlife sanctuaries, 500 metre from schools and 100 metres from mining areas. "All distances, unless specifically mentioned..., except the distance from village, are to be measured as the crow flies from the nearest boundary of the land of the stone crusher to the periphery of the feature concerned," says the notification signed by Anand Mohan Sharan, additional chief secretary, environment, forest and wildlife, who retired on August 31. There are 1,051 stone crushers in Haryana with the largest 253 in Charkhi Dadri, followed by Yamunanagar (188), Bhiwani (187), Mahendergarh (165), Gurugram (117) and Faridabad (97), according to Mines and geology department. The notification says that the existing, approved crusher zones and their extension shall not be affected by the latest "siting minimum distance criteria." "The above mentioned siting criteria shall only be applicable to stone crushing units to be established in the area outside the existing, approved crusher zones or their extension," the notification says, adding that no new stone crushing unit will be allowed to be set up or operate outside the identified crusher zones in Faridabad, Palwal and Gurugram district. "All the stone crushing units, which do not meet the siting criteria prescribed in the notification shall have to shift to a site meeting the siting parameters mentioned in all the schedules within 30 days or they will have to close down the operations, otherwise the respective department would take necessary action for their closure as per the respective rules," reads the notification....