Criminal Nexus: Illegal mining comes to fore in M’Garh village

Ravinder Saini

Mahendragarh, July 10

A joint inspection team of the mines, police and forest departments has found illegal mining on a hill in the Ghataser gram panchayat area under the Nizampur block of the district.

Interestingly, people involved in illegal mining had created several kutcha paths on the hill to transport mined materials to other places. The team got all such paths destroyed to stop the movement of vehicles.

“Fresh evidence of illegal mining on the hill’s face in Ghataser village were found when the team inspected the site on Saturday after receiving a complaint. The mining was carried out at Aravalli Plantation Hill area. However, no person or vehicle was found at the site. A report in this respect has been submitted to the district authorities today for further action,” Mining Officer (MO) Bhupinder Singh said.

“The hill falls in no-mining zone, but three main makeshift paths were found there to reach the illegal mining site and transport mined material to other places. These paths have now been dug up and blocked. The inspection was conducted in the presence of representatives of present and former sarpanch of Ghataser village,” he added.

Gurbachan Singh, the husband of Ghataser village sarpanch Urmila Devi, claims that illegal mining has been conducted for a long time at night and no firm action has been taken by the authorities to check it despite several complaints.

“Blasts are carried out for illegal mining at night and the sound of these blasts can easily be heard in the village. Tractor-trailers are used to transport the mined material through makeshift paths the hill leading to Ghataser, Basirpur and Mukundpur village,” Singh asserted.

Jai Bhagwan, Range Forest Officer, said the hill area was the property of the Ghataser Gram panchayat. The Forest Department merely planted saplings there to enhance the green cover. “It is the responsibility of the gram panchayat and the Mining Department to check illegal mining on the hill,” he said.