Crackdowns no deterrent to illegal mining in Aravallis

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Mahendragarh, April 8

Despite repeated crackdowns on mining in the Aravalli hills by the authorities, the mafia continues the illegal practice at various places in the district.

Under its ongoing move against the mafia, a team of officials, comprising mining inspector Ashok Kumar, sub-inspector Ramesh Kumar and constable Rajender Kumar, raided several places in the district last night.

“Illegal mining was going on when the team carried out a raid at the Sada Shiv Stone Crusher Plant in Khudana village in the jurisdiction in the Aravalli region. Three JCB machines and three trucks used in the mining were seized and the plant was sealed,” said Rajesh Sangwan, mining officer, Narnaul.

He maintained two JCB machines of the plant were seized on March 26 and a penalty of Rs 2.20 lakh was also imposed on the plant owner. He, however, restarted the illegal mining after sometime. Three separate cases against the plant were already registered with the Aakoda and Narnaul police stations, he said.

“Thereafter, the team moved towards Maharampur village and confiscated a tractor-trailer. A fine of Rs 12,000 was slapped on the tractor owner,” said Sangwan.

The team also conducted a raid at an illegal site near Khadla village and seized a JCB machine and two tractor-trailers from there, he said. Sources said several sites were sealed by the authorities earlier also, but the mining mafia managed to make it functional again with the help of influential persons of the area. “Local people are helping the mafia in lieu of money. Through illegal mining, the mafia causes a loss of several crores every day to the state exchequer,” sources said.