Drive against illegal mining stepped up in Baddi

Solan, August 10

The Baddi police have stepped up its campaign against illegal mining with 330 challans having been issued this year till July while a penalty of Rs 46.84 lakh was collected.

The Baddi-Barotiwala- Nalagarh (BBN) industrial belt shares a porous border with Punjab and Haryana and the presence of multiple escape routes poses a major challenge for the police to contain illegal mining. The offenders slip into the neighbouring states after filling their tractor-trailers with quarry material from the riverbeds. Connivance of locals has also been found in such cases.

The mining mafia strikes in the late evenings and winds up operations before sunrise. They have a well organised network with armed escorts keeping an eye on the officials.

DSP Baddi Priyank Gupta said a mining cell had been specially constituted to check illegal mining in this border belt. “Challans have been issued in 330 cases for violating the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act this year where penalty worth Rs 46.84 lakh has been realised as against 250 illegal mining cases last year in which penalty worth Rs 42.57 lakh was realised.”

“Places like Handa Kundi and Androla Khud and riverbeds of Mahadev and Chikni rivers are the major areas where several cases of mining have been unearthed by the police in the recent days,” said the DSP.

He added that that mechanical mining on the riverbeds using earth excavation machines and poclains, which is in violation of the norms, had been noticed.

Many bridges in this industrial belt have been damaged due to illegal mining close to their bases. Several such bridges lying on the Baddi-Nalagarh-Swarghat highway were closed for traffic after heavy rains. Widespread damage has been caused to a key bridge on the Balad khad which is a vital link between Haryana and Baddi owing to illegal mining.