Screening plants inspected in Naraingarh

A team of District-Level Task Force Committee (mining) led by Naraingarh SDM inspected 20 screening plants on Tuesday and recommended action against five of these for various irregularities.

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Naraingarh Divisional Magistrate Shashvat Sangwan was accompanied by DSP Mukesh Kumar and officials of the Mining Department, Haryana State Pollution Control Board and the Power Department during the inspections.

The team visited screening plants at various villages, including Dera, Rao Majra, Sangrani, Mianpur and Toka to find out the available stock, operations and compliance of environment guidelines.

As per the information, during the inspection of 20 screening plants, 12 were found non-operational.

During the inspection of screening plants at Dera village, three screening plants were found non-operational but it was observed that the plants were in operation just before the inspection. The team found differences in stocks available physically and stocks quantity available on the portals. The cases have been recommended for suspension of mining processing licence.

Meanwhile, two plants at Dera village were found non-operational during the inspection. However, the environmental guidelines related to green belts were not being complied with following which action would be taken by the Haryana State Pollution Control Board for revocation of consent to operate.

Sangwan said, “Continuous efforts are being made for the prevention of illegal mining. As part of the efforts being made, we decided to make surprise inspection of the screening plants in the Naraingarh area to check the stock and quantity of minerals available with these units online and offline. As many as 20 screening plants were inspected on Tuesday and during the inspection several irregularities were observed in the physical stock and compliance of environmental guidelines. Action has been recommended against five plants and we will continue to inspect the screening plants in the coming days too.”

“During the inspection, some screening plant operators produced old receipts and claimed that there were no operations, however during investigation, it was found that the plants were stopped just before inspection. There are clear directions from Ambala Deputy Commissioner and the Chief Minister to stop all illegal mining for which a six-tier mechanism has been implemented in Naraingarh. With the help of the BDPO, police, RTA Ambala, Mining Officer, Pollution Control Board and Power Department, a close watch is being kept on the mining sites, checkpoints, and screening plants. The residents are also being motivated to report mining activities,” he added.

The SDM said, “We have appealed to the residents not to help the people involved in illegal mining by providing information regarding the locations of officials during the inspection and also not to provide vehicles for transporting mined material, else action will be taken against them too. The permits of the vehicles being used in illegal mining will be cancelled and cases will be registered against the people sharing the locations of officials.”