Green body flags illegal mining in ‘mand’ area

In order to declare the ‘mand’ area in Fatehpur and Indora subdivisions of Kangra district no-mining zones, the Mand Area Environment Protection Samiti today submitted a memorandum to the Governor. Highlighting the illegal mining activities going on in the Beas, allegedly with the connivance of the government authorities, the samiti has sought the intervention of the Governor in the matter.

Submits memo to governor

Highlighting the illegal mining activities going on in the Beas, allegedly with the connivance of the government authorities, the Mand Area Environment Protection Samiti has submitted a memorandum to the Governor and sought his intervention in the matter.

Hans Raj, president of the samiti, said the samiti had raised the demand either to declare the ‘mand’ area a no-mining zone or shift the mining affected people to other places if the state government was unable to stop illegal mining in this low-lying area.

In the memorandum, the samiti has claimed that the ‘mand’ area had fertile agrarian land but it had turned barren due to illegal mining and flashfloods in the Beas. It stated that the then state government had given its permission to set up a stone crusher unit here in 2009 but now 16 stone crushers had been set up. “The rampant illegal mining activities that are carried out even during the ongoing two-and-half-month blanket ban are playing havoc with the ecology and agrarian land in the area. The administration and authorities concerned have turned a blind eye to the violation,” it stated.

The samiti has also strongly opposed the new mining policy of the state government which allowed the JCB machines to extract minerals from the riverbeds up to a depth of 2 m. It feared that the new mining policy would encourage mining mafia for indulging in illegal mining activities that would ruin the ‘mand’ area.

Meanwhile, Raj said local gram panchayats had issued wrong no objection certificates (NOCs) for facilitating procurement of government approval for setting up new stone crusher units in the ‘mand’ area. He said the NOC was required to be issued only after mandatory approval in the gram sabha meetings. He alleged that some stone crusher units were selling and transporting gravel and sand out of the state without mandatory X-forms with fake receipts.

“The multi-axle vehicles loaded with 40 to 50 tonnes of material of the stone crushers are passing through village roads that have the capacity of vehicles loaded with only 9 to 10 tonnes of material. The movement of heavy loaded vehicles has damaged the village roads and the authorities concerned are silent spectators,” he lamented.