21K illegal mining cases across Haryana in over 7 years

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Chandigarh, March 9

One person had died while another was injured during a landslide at an illegal mining site at Jainpur village in Mahendragarh district on January 19. The area falls under the Aravalli forest zone. Five workers had died in a landslide at a mine site in Dadam hills in Bhiwani on January 1.

Taking note of the mishaps, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had asked the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) and the Mining Department on January 18 to take remedial action against illegal mining at Dadam.

According to the Economic Survey of Haryana for 2021-22, tabled before the Haryana Legislative Assembly on March 8, a total of 21,450 illegal mining cases were detected in the state, including transportation of minerals without valid documents, from 2014-15 up to September 2021.

This comes to eight cases per day or a case every three hours. The penalty realised during the same period was Rs 5,094.95 lakh.

In 2019-20, a total of 1,492 cases were detected and a penalty of Rs 347.12 lakh was realised. In 2020-21, a total of 4,281 cases were detected and Rs 1,076.63 lakh penalty was realised, while in 2021-22 (up to September 2021), Rs 464.87 lakh was realised in 712 cases.

Former CM and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda said: “Illegal mining is a scandal running thousands of crores. I have inspected the Dadam site and a watercourse has been dug up at the site. It should be investigated by the CBI or a High Court Judge. Even the NGT took note of it.”

From August 28, 2019, to January 15, 2022, a total of 7,113 vehicles found indulging in illegal mining have been seized in the state.

With 1,282 vehicles, Yamunanagar tops the seizure, followed by Gurugram and Nuh (916), Mahendragarh and Narnaul (762), and Faridabad and Palwal (755).