Illegal mining along border damages bridge in Baddi belt

Solan, July 30

Mining mafia operating illegally along the Haryana-Baddi border has damaged a bridge near here.

District Mining Officer (DMO) Dinesh Kumar, who conducted a series of night raids in this industrial belt on July 25 and 26, found several vehicles transporting illegally mined material.

“An illegally operating earth excavation machine was found at Balad Khad in the Baddi industrial area during a recent raid,” Dinesh Kumar said.

“Issuing a challan to the machine operator, the mining team found three more machines working illegally just below the Balad Khud along the Haryana border. They, however, fled,” he said.

Despite informing the nearest police station, no immediate help was provided to arrest the wrongdoers. Though the Baddi police have constituted a mining cell that has a large number of CCTV and drone cameras to keep an eye on wrong-doers, there seems to be no check on the illegal activity. A majority of the bridges are facing damage due to unchecked illegal mining in this industrial belt.

During a raid conducted on July 26, the mining officer, along with his team, spotted two tippers loaded with illegally mined material along the Kulhariwala khad and one tipper at Dhundli khad near the Haryana border along the Balad khad. This illegal activity is causing damage to the key bridge on the Balad khad which is a vital link between Haryana and Baddi.

Will take up issue with Haryana

“The case of mining along the Balad bridge shall be taken up with the mining officials of Haryana so that no further damage is caused to the bridges and national highways along the border and those involved in the illegal work are panelised,” the DMO said.