Chandigarh, July 16 -- The Union ministry of mines has moved the National Green Tribunal (NGT) seeking deletion of its name from a petition challenging the Punjab government's river desilting projects, arguing that it has no statutory role in regulating, monitoring, or granting approvals for such activities, which fall exclusively within the jurisdiction of the state government. The application stems from an ongoing environmental dispute in which the NGT, in February this year, stayed desilting operations at several sites across Punjab, including in Ropar district, over concerns that the activity was being undertaken for commercial extraction of minor minerals without obtaining mandatory environmental clearances. The interim order followed a petition challenging the Punjab Water Resources Department's October 17, 2025, auction notice covering proposed desilting works in Mohali, Patiala, Mansa, Ropar, Ludhiana, Anandpur Sahib and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar districts. In its affidavit, the ministry of mines contended that it had been "unnecessarily and improperly" impleaded as Respondent in the case. It argued that the issues raised in the petition fall within the legislative and administrative domain of the Punjab government and the ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC), and not the ministry of mines. HTC...