JCB machines engaged in illegal mining seized

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, July 2

The owners of the vehicles involved in illegal mining are in for trouble. In a fresh drive against illegal mining in the district, Kangra police have decided to book the owners of JCB and other heavy moving machines caught while engaged in illegal mining operations.

SP Kangra, Sanjeev Gandhi while talking to The Tribune said that earlier police used to book drivers of the heavy earth moving machinery for illegal mining. “However, now we have decided to book the owners of the machines and make driver approvers in cases. The drivers were just tools in illegal and the real culprits were the owners of machines”, he said.

The SP said that already this week six JCBs and two other machines involved in illegal mining have been confiscated and their owners have been booked for theft of government property. Besides the machines, 10 trucks and tippers have also been seized for overloading of mined materials. The overloaded trucks and tippers are damaging roads and also causing accidents in the district. Police would now take strict action against overloading, the SP said.

He said that police would involve the Pollution Control Board officials and Geology Department officials for matching the stocks available with the stone crusher owners and amount of material being transported and sold by them. In case it was found to be mismatching fraud cases could be registered against the stone crusher owners.

Already the Kangra police had written to the state government to make illegal mining an un-compoundable offence. Under the Mine and Minerals Act the vehicles and machinery held for illegal mining is released after a maximum fine of Rs 25,000. Illegal mining being a compoundable offence means that it can be compounded after payment of stipulated fine. The request of district police is yet to be accepted by the state government.

However, the Kangra police was booking the offenders in illegal mining for theft of government property that was an un-compoundable offence.