Two stone crushers sealed in Nalagarh
A team of officials, led by the Member Secretary of the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB), on Saturday sealed two stone crushers in Nalagarh for their failure to address shortcoming pointed out by the board.
The team, comprising Member Secretary, SPCB, Anil Joshi, Chief Engineer Praveen Gupta, Tehsildar, mining inspector and a police official, examined the working of 13 stone crushers on the directions of the Himachal High Court issued on Thursday. The High Court has adopted a strict stance on illegal mining going on in violation of the norms in Nalagarh. It had directed Anil Joshi to personally visit the area and seize the machinery if illegal mining was detected.
Earlier, the Secretary of the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) had also visited the place where the stone crushers were said to be operational and a report pertaining to their deficiencies was submitted on December 13, 2023, before the court. The SPCB had issued a show-cause notice to the stone crushers, pointing out deficiencies in their operations. They were directed to remove the shortcoming in a time-bound manner.
The court passed the order on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a Nalagarh-based organisation alleging that in the garb of operating stone crushers on leased land, illegal mining was underway in the area. Illegal mining was adversely affecting the environment, besides causing revenue loss to the state exchequer. The state government, SPCB and 13 stone crushers were made respondents in the case.
It was alleged in the petition that reckless mining had led to deep fissures on the riverbeds, rendering the area barren, while the waste of stone crushers set up at Panjera and Navgaon was being recklessly thrown into a river, polluting it.
It was alleged that tippers, which show 15 tonnes of mining material, often carried 30 tonnes to 35 tonnes of material. Due to this, the government suffered a revenue loss of thousands of rupees per vehicle. When complaints were made to the officials concerned, they did not take effective action.
Residents of Jogon, Jagatpur, Nangal, Kundlu, Malahani and Baniyala villages have also appealed to the authorities concerned several times to cancel the mining lease along the Kala Kund as the lease holders were illegally exploiting the rivulet.
