Criminal nexus: Fudging e-transit passes to sell illegally mined stock

Shiv Kumar Sharma

Yamunanagar, April 11

Several stone crushers and screening plants in Yamunanagar district have allegedly been misusing e-transit passes, called e-rawanas, to adjust illegally mined material in their stock and to show mining minerals unsold on the Haryana Government’s e-rawana portal.

To undertake this illegal business, screening plants cancel the e-transit passes issued by them as soon as their vehicles loaded with mining material cross check-posts set up by the Mines and Geology Department.

A team of the Mines and Geology Department, headed by Yamunanagar Assistant Mining Engineer Rajesh Sangwan, has detected eight recent cases of issuance and cancellation of e-transit passes in the district. The malpractice was detected when the owner of a screening plant in a village under Bilaspur block issued two transit passes for a truck on April 4. Incidentally, the truck then was in police possession after being impounded for ferrying mining material without an e-transit pass. The plant owner, however, subsequently cancelled both e-transit passes. When the records of the screening plant were checked, the mining department found six more e-transit passes that were cancelled after issuance. Suspecting that the cases of misuse of e-transit passes could be much higher, the mining department has decided to scan the records of certain plants, said sources.

The Assistant Mining Engineer said the modus operandi appeared to be to cancel the e-transit passes once the vehicles crossed check-posts. He said a case was registered against the screening plant owner at the Bilaspur police station on April 6.

“The quantity of mineral that actually has been physically dispatched should have been deducted on the online portal. But after the cancellation of the e-transit passes, the mineral quantity on the portal remains the same. This malpractice leads to illegal mining,” said Sangwan. He said 29 FIRs were registered against persons found allegedly involved in illegal mining between September 2022 and April 10 this year. He said a fine of Rs 1.8 crore had also been realised.

8 cases detected

• Stone crushers and screening plants first issue e-transit passes, then cancel these once loaded trucks cross check-posts
• The aim is to show sold mined minerals unsold on the govt’s e-rawana portal that monitors stock
• Eight cases recently detected in one screening plant alone