Cuttack: National Green Tribunal (NGT) has imposed a total fine of Rs 2 lakh on the chief secretary and seven other Odisha govt officials for repeatedly failing to ensure representation before it in a case involving alleged excess and illegal sand mining in Angul district.The east zone Bench of Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi, judicial member, and expert members A Senthil Vel and Ishwar Singh ordered each of the eight respondents — the chief secretary, principal secretary of water resources department, deputy director of mines (Talcher circle), regional transport officer (Angul), tehsildars of Talcher and Parajang, superintendent of police (Angul) and inspector-in-charge of Talcher police station — to pay Rs 25,000 each for causing delay in the proceedings.The case relates to allegations of mining beyond the permitted lease area and excess extraction at Nizgarhzami Sand Quarry, locally known as Gopinathpur sand quarry, in Brahmani river under Talcher tehsil. A Talcher-based NGO had approached the tribunal through advocates Sankar Prasad Pani and Ashutosh Padhy .“The non-appearance of counsels on behalf of the eight respondents today has the effect of causing unnecessary adjournment and delaying appropriate resolution of the environmental issues involved in the case,” the bench said in its Sept 28 order, a web copy of which was uploaded on Tuesday.The tribunal held that such “deliberate non-appearance” needed to be remedied by imposing exemplary costs.The officials were given one more opportunity to file their responses within a month and asked to deposit the costs with the tribunal’s registrar in Kolkata within the same period.The Angul collector was not fined as the tehsildar concerned appeared on his behalf through videoconferencing.The matter will come up for further hearing on Dec 4.The bench noted that while the respondents had appeared through the state counsel on the initial dates, none had appeared on their behalf on the last few dates.Taking exception to this, the bench observed: “The proceedings before this Tribunal cannot be treated as part of adversarial litigation where the concerned defendants may opt out to remain absent and suffer ex-parte proceedings.”It emphasised that the state and its instrumentalities have constitutional and statutory obligations to ensure compliance with environmental norms.They are therefore required to submit replies with relevant details and remain represented through authorised counsel or representatives, the bench further noted, adding that the State of Odisha and some of its instrumentalities were “not generally appearing before this Tribunal” and were not filing responses despite service of notices.The issue had earlier been brought to the notice of the chief secretary and the advocate general, Odisha, to issue appropriate instructions to ensure compliance with tribunal notices and representation in proceedings, the bench said.