Yamunanagar screening plant faces action for illegally excavating mining material

Shiv Kumar Sharma

Yamunanagar, October 5

The owners of a screening plant allegedly excavated 3,97,661 cubic ft of raw mining material by carrying out illegal mining at a village in Yamunanagar district recently.

After the excavation, the owners allegedly sold the mined mineral (a mixture of boulder, gravel and sand) to other screening plants without issuing any transit pass (e-rawana), thereby committing theft of government revenue in terms of royalty and GST.

Raid conducted on September 27

• The case of huge illegal mining came to light during a surprise inspection of a screening plant in Bailgarh village on September 27
• The royalty of illegally excavated mineral amounted to Rs 1.72 crore
• Screening plant owners sold illegally mined mineral to other plant owners without issuing e-rawana/transit pass

As per the Mines and Geology Department, Yamunanagar, the royalty of the illegally excavated mineral amounted to about Rs 1.72 crore.

The Mines Department shall charge the royalty amount from the accused.

The department also got an FIR registered against the owners of the screening plant at the Pratap Nagar police station, recently in connection with this case of illegal mining.

Sources said, this case of huge illegal mining came to light when a team of the local Mining Department, headed by Rajesh Sangwan, assistant mining engineer, conducted a surprise inspection of a screening plant in Bailgarh village on September 27at 11.30 pm.

The team found a loader working near the screening plant involved in the illegal lifting of boulders, gravel and sand. However, on seeing the team, the operator and the loader managed to flee from the spot.

Later, the team inspected the office of the said screening plant and details related to the sale and purchase of the minerals were taken from the mineral dealer licence (MDL) of the screening plant. An MDL is connected with the e-rawana portal of the state government.

As per the entries of the MDL, the last sale by the plant owners was conducted on September 23and, similarly, the last purchase was done on May 28.

The team also took the manual records of the plant maintained by the plant owners into its custody.

“The details reflect that mix boulders, gravel and sand having total quantity of 3,15,520 cubic ft/foot was sold to other screening plants between September 22 to September 27,” said Rajesh Sangwan, assistant mining engineer, Yamunanagar.

He said similarly, 25,180 cubic ft gatka (stone) was also sold by the plant owners between September 23 and September 27 to various screening plant owners.

He said 56,961 cubic ft coarse sand was also sold by the plant owners to the customers of coarse sand between September 22 and September 27.

“In this way, a total of 3,97,661 cubic ft of minerals (boulders, gravel, sand, gatka and coarse sand) were sold by the plant owners which was illegally mined and sold without issuing any e-rawana as these figures no-where match the online portal (e-rawana) of the said plant,” said Rajesh Sangwan, Assistant Mining Engineering.

He said the royalty of the illegally excavated 3,97,661 cubic ft mineral amounted to Rs 1,72,62,840.