40 stone crushers owe Rs 80 cr as fine

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, April 23

As many as 40 stone crushers in Kangra district owe Rs 80 crore to the state government as penalty for illegal mining.

Despite the fact that the stone crusher owners have lost the case in the Supreme Court, they have not paid the amount, nor submitted any schedule of repayment.

About 25 stone crushers are still being allowed to operate by the authorities.

Sources in the Mining Department said in the state, the stone crusher owners owe penalty worth Rs 150 crore.

In Kangra district, most of the erring stone crushers are in Nurpur area that borders Pathankot of Punjab.

Mining officer posted in Nurpur Naresh Kumar said notices had been issued to the erring stone crushers to deposit penalty. If they do not deposit the amount, their power connections are likely to be cut.

Sources here said most of the violating stone crushers are directly or indirectly owned by politically influential people or their families.

Recently, a stone crusher located in the Mand area on the Punjab-Himachal border was in news after an activist Puran Chand was beaten up by the owners of a stone crusher. It was only after the intervention of the CM that a case was registered against the owners. However, now the stone crusher has been bought by the family of a first-time MLA, who has deep interests in mining, and a few others affiliated with the ruling party.

The fact that politically influential people own stone crushers was also raised in the Assembly. BJP MLA from Nurpur Rakesh Pathania had raised it after he was targeted by some party MLAs over illegal mining.

Puran Chand, while talking to The Tribune, alleged that stone crushers were still illegally mining in the Beas riverbed. Despite the fact that pokelane machines were banned in riverbeds, illegal mining was still taking place and riverbed had been dug by 20 to 30 feet at places, he alleged.

The mining officer, Nurpur, said since the present BJP government took over, power connections of 25 stone crushers that were operating illegal were cut. The power connections of seven crushers had now been restored after they completed the papers.

The locals, however, alleged that the stone crushers whose power connections had been severed were still operating with the help of generators. Such stone crushers were working on a daily basis and distributing profits from illegal mining among the partners.

The department that is responsible for checking illegal mining is grossly ill-equipped. The Nurpur mining office from where the maximum cases of illegal mining are reported, has staff of just two members – a mining officer and a mining inspector. Both officials do not have any official vehicle to go in the field and are dependent on the police for action against violators.

The state government rules notified this month on April 6 have increased the penalty for illegal mining to Rs 5 lakh and the use of JCB from Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000. However, till date no one has been penalised under the new rules.

Illegal mining

• Many stone crushers still being allowed to operate
• Issue raised in Assembly
• Most of the violating stone crushers are directly or indirectly owned by politically influential people
• A stone crusher located in Mand area on the Punjab-Himachal border was in news after an activist was beaten up by the owners of stone crusher