Chandigarh, December 11
The Haryana Government has been forced to issue an order imposing a blanket ban on mining being carried out in the Aravali ranges in the state following the Supreme Court taking umbrage at the state government’s earlier order confining the ban on only the notified forest areas in the hill range.
It was learnt that the state government yesterday issued directives to the Deputy Commissioners of five districts affected by the blanket ban order to submit their compliance reports to the Director of the Mines and Geology Department today. On Friday, the state government would be required to file a report in the Supreme Court intimating the court about implementation of the blanket ban in the five districts, a source here stated.
In an earlier order on November 29, the state government, in compliance with the Supreme Court order banning mining activities in the Aravali ranges, had imposed a ban on mining in forest areas of the hills. However, the ban order had affected about 60 per cent of the mines in Faridabad district and 40 per cent in Gurgaon district only, sources said and added that there was virtually no affect of the November 29 order on the extraction of silica, quartz, common sand, stones, etc from the mines situated in Mahendragarh, Rewari and Bhiwani districts.
Haryana Government officials here said that the November 29 order confining the ban on mining in forest areas only was drawn up after consultation with legal experts, including the Advocate-General of the state who had opined that the order would satisfy the court. However, during the hearing of the case on Monday, the court took exception to the Haryana Government’s interpretation of its directive and asked the Chief Secretary of Haryana to implement the blanket ban on mining in the Aravali ranges within 72 hours and file a compliance report in the court.
Officials in the Mines and Geology Department of Haryana tried to put the blame on the Rajasthan
Government which too had been affected by the Supreme Court order banning mining in the Aravali ranges. “ The Rajasthan Government’s reluctance to take any action to ban mining in the state perhaps provoked the court to insist on a blanket ban on mining in Rajasthan as well as Haryana”, claimed an official of the Mines and Geology Department here.
A source, however, said though Haryana would lose Rs 150 crore in annual revenue due to the closure on mining in Faridabad, Gurgaon, Rewari, Mahendragarh and Bhiwani districts, the government’s initial attempt to wriggle out of imposing a blanket ban in the state has more to do with the abundance of cash generated by mining in these districts and the direct involvement in this business by some of the state’s political bigwigs.
Meanwhile, sources said that the mines in Panchkula and Yamunanagar would not fall under the purview of the blanket ban order as the mines in these districts were located in the Shivalik ranges.
