28 stone crushers in Yamunanagar under lens for using 'fake' passes

Shiv Kumar Sharma

Yamunanagar, October 17

As many as 28 stone crushers in the district are under the scanner for allegedly using bogus e-transit passes (e-rawanas), procured from a shut screening plant, to pass off illegally mined mineral as legal.

Portal ‘misused’

• Shut Yamunanagar screening plant ‘misuses’ e-rawana portal to issue bogus e-transit passes to stone crushers
• Using passes, crushers show illegally mined mineral as legal; further sell it using own e-transit passes, say sources

Mining Officer Om Dutt Sharma has written to the Bilaspur police station SHO urging him to initiate action against the erring plants. Sources said the Shakumbhari Screening Plant at Ranipur village in the district had been non-functional for past several months, but its owners “misused” the e-rawana portal to issue bogus e-transit passes to the stone crushers. On October 10, the screening plant owners were booked at the Bilaspur police station following a raid by a joint team of the CM Flying Squad and Mines and Geology Department, Yamunanagar.

The officials found out the screening plant had shown fake sale of 2,26,805 MT of mining mineral — boulder, gravel, sand and gatka — to a number of stone crushers. “In fact, the screening plant didn’t sell any mining mineral to the stone crushers. It only issued these e-transit passes between September 17 and October 9,” said a source.