Power supply to stone crushers snapped
Palampur, July 5
The state government has ordered discontinuation of power supply to all functional stone crushers in Jaisinghpur subdivision in view of the coming rainy season. Official sources said the decision was taken to check environmental degradation and avoid land erosion, as most of the stone crushing units were using heavy machinery such as JCB machines for mining in the region.
The power supply to two stone crushers at Jaisinghpur was disconnected while others were yet to receive notices from the government. Stone crushing units had also been directed not to use generator sets.
A senior government official told The Tribune that the Mining Department, Dharamsala, had written to the HPSEBL authorities at Lambagaon in this regard. The HPSEBL had been directed that the orders shall remain in effect till September 30 and after that the government would review the situation for the restoration of power supply.
A spokesman for the Crusher Association said that the government had adopted a pick and choose policy while discontinuing power supply to stone crushers. Power supply had been stopped only at Jaisinghpur while in other parts of the district and the state, all stone crushers were functional as usual.
He regretted that no prior notice had been served on them and therefore they could not store sand, grit and other mining material for sale during the rainy season.
He said the prices of building material was likely to rise, affecting the common man. He appealed to the government to restore the power supply immediately. —OC
