Yamunanagar: 6 screening plants under lens for fake purchase of minerals

Shiv Kumar Sharma

Yamunanagar, May 30

Six screening plants of Yamunanagar district have allegedly shown a fake purchase of nearly 1.12 lakh metric tonnes (MTs) of raw mining minerals — a mixture of boulder, gravel and sand — in their records. The plants have reportedly mentioned that they bought the raw mining minerals from Jhajjar, Faridabad, Panipat, Gurugram, Sonepat, Mahendragarh and Panchkula districts. However, no such minerals in the form of boulder and gravel exist in Jhajjar, Mahendragarh, Gurugram, Panipat and Sonepat districts.

Sources said the purchase of the raw minerals was shown only on paper. In fact, they had got such huge quantities of minerals through illegal mining at Yamunanagar district itself, as boulder, gravel and sand are in abundance in the district.

The fake purchase of raw minerals was detected by Rajesh Sangwan, Assistant Mining Engineer (AME) of the Mines and Geology Department, Yamunanagar, while checking records related to the sale and purchase of minerals of several suspected plants of the district on their e-Rawana portal recently.

According to information, there has been no physical dispatch of the minerals from other districts to Yamunanagar district. This was verified by the department from the CCTV footage of the mineral dealer licence (MDL) holders of other districts.

“Several MDL holders have provided the mineral quantity (purchase) only through papers (e-transit passes) to the owners of screening plants of the district,” Sangwan said. The plant owners, in turn, carried out illegal mining to get the minerals and sold them by generating e-transit passes from their e-Rawana portal, he stated.

Sources said this practice of fake purchase of minerals was not only promoting illegal mining of minerals, but also causing huge loss of government revenue in the form of royalty and sales tax.

In a letter to the Director of Mines and Geology Department recently, Sangwan said there was an urgent need of taking stringent action against the MDL holders of other districts and beneficiaries of fake purchase of minerals of Yamunanagar district by stopping their e-Rawana portal or even cancelling their licences.

He said he had also written to deputy commissioners, SPs and mining officers of several districts, including Jhajjar, Faridabad, Panipat, Gurugram, Sonepat, Mahendragarh and Panchkula, requesting them to immediately lodge FIRs against those involved in the illegal mining business.

Glaring discrepancies

• The minerals were shown to be bought from Jhajjar, Faridabad, Panipat, Gurugram, Sonepat, Mahendragarh and Panchkula districts
• Raw mining minerals in the form of boulder and gravel do not exist in Jhajjar, Mahendragarh, Gurugram, Panipat and Sonepat districts