The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has extended the stay on desilting sites in Punjab till January 20. The NGT kept its existing interim directions in force in five connected environmental cases concerning Punjab. The latest order of the NGT would continue restriction on desilting operations in the state until at least January 20, 2027, when the matters will next come up for hearing.The NGT’s Principal Bench, headed by Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Expert Member Dr Afroz Ahmad, passed the order on October 7 after allowing a request by counsel for the Punjab Government to adjourn the hearing on medical grounds.The Bench directed that the interim order passed earlier would continue to operate until the next hearing. It also permitted the parties to complete their pleadings in the meantime.The cases include one filed by Gram Panchayat Galhri, along with petitions by Daljeet Singh, Ajay Kumar, Gaurav Partap Singh Pathania and Ravinder Pal Singh against various government authorities for stopping desilting of river beds across the state.The continuation of the interim directions means that the Punjab Government and other concerned authorities cannot treat the adjournment in the case as a clearance to disregard the conditions imposed by the tribunal in its earlier orders. Any mining, dredging or desilting activity covered by those directions must continue to comply with the applicable conditions until the tribunal modifies or vacates them.The tribunal had earlier modified its February 11 interim order on April 2, allowing the state to proceed with the impugned tender notices subject to strict conditions. These included compliance with the National Framework for Sediment Management, applicable NGT directions and the Sustainable Sand Mining Management Guidelines, 2016. Crucially, the tribunal stipulated that the dredging, desilting and extraction of sand covered by those notices must be for non commercial purposes.The NGT had earlier restricted desilting at about 90 sites across the state in the plea that desilting on commercial scale in rivers cannot be carried out till the environmental clearance for the activity was obtained. The complainants before the NGT had contended that the desilting operations proposed by the state amounted the commercial mining can threaten the ecology of the rivers.The legal scrutiny centres on whether operations described as desilting for flood protection and river management could result in commercial extraction and sale of sand and other riverbed material. The continuing interim directions therefore restrict the state’s drainage and mining departments, contractors and authorities responsible from implementing river desilting projects.The next hearing will provide an opportunity for the parties to complete their pleadings and for the tribunal to consider the issues further. Until then, the October 7 order maintains the restrictions on desilting in the state rivers.