Haryana forms four-member committee to probe misuse of mining e-transit passes

Yamunanagar, April 14

Taking note of a news report published in The Tribune on April 12, the Haryana Mines and Geology Department has constituted a team to check the alleged misuse of e-transit passes to sell illegally mined minerals.

The report, ‘Fudging e-transit passes to sell illegally mined stock’, mentioned how stone crushers and screening plants were first allegedly issuing e-transit passes (called e-rawanas) for trucks loaded with mining material and then cancelling these once the vehicles crossed the check-posts set up by the Mines and Geology Department. The aim reportedly is to show sold mined minerals unsold on the government’s e-rawana portal that monitors the stock of crushers.

The probe team is to check “malpractices” in Yamunanagar, Gurugram, Nuh, Faridabad and Palwal districts and submit its report to the Director of Mines and Geology Department, Narhari Singh Banger, by April 17. The team comprises Assistant Mining Engineers Rajesh Sangwan (Yamunanagar) and Rajender Prasad (headquarters), and Mining Officers Rajesh Sehrawat (headquarter) and Anil Kumar (Sonepat).

A team of the Mines and Geology Department headed by Rajesh Sangwan had recently detected eight cases of issuance and cancellation of e-transit passes in Yamunanagar. “The quantity of minerals 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. — TNS

Fudging in five districts

• Probe is to be done in Yamunanagar, Gurugram, Nuh, Faridabad and Palwal
• Report is to be submitted to the Haryana Mines and Geology Department Director by April 17
• Eight cases of the alleged fraud were recently detected in Yamunanagar