LUCKNOW, May 3 -- The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has set aside the e-tender notice issued for riverbed sand mining in Hamirpur district over absence of valid district survey report (DSR). The bench, comprising justice Prakash Shrivastava (chairperson) and expert member Afroz Ahmad, passed the order on April 24, 2026, while hearing a petition filed by Yadram Singh. Singh had approached the NGT in 2024, challenging the e-tender notice by the then Hamirpur DM on June 14, 2024. The tribunal held that the tender notice was issued at a time when no valid and final DSR was in place for Hamirpur. The tribunal noted that the earlier DSR had expired in 2022, and although a draft report was prepared in May 2024, it had not been approved by the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) when the tender was issued on June 14, 2024. Relying on the Enforcement and Monitoring Guidelines for Sand Mining, 2020, and the Supreme Court's judgment in State of Bihar vs. Pawan Kumar, the tribunal reiterated that preparing and approving a valid DSR is a mandatory prerequisite before auctioning sand mining sites. htc...