Illegal stone crushers on temple land face power cut over expired lease

The Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Limited (HPSEBL) disconnected the power supply of two stone crushers operating on Ram Gopal Temple land in Bhatia and Mazra, located in Indora subdivision. The action was taken last evening after it was found that these crushers were running without a valid mining lease, as their previous lease had expired and was not renewed by the government-run temple management.

The temple’s assets were taken over by the state government, with the Kangra Deputy Commissioner (DC) serving as the Commissioner and Indora Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) as the Joint Commissioner of the temple management.

According to Indora SDM Surinder Thakur, he had recommended three months ago that the Kangra DC notify the mining department to prevent the crushers from obtaining permanent registration without a no objection certificate (NOC) from the temple management. He clarified that the NOC would not be issued until the outstanding dues were cleared and a new lease agreement was signed under updated temple management guidelines.

Sources in the mining department confirmed that they had requested HPSEBL over a month ago to cut the electricity supply of the illegally operating crushers. However, despite the initial power disconnection, the crushers reportedly resumed operations after securing partial electricity restoration.

When contacted, Mining Officer Suresh Kumar admitted that the crusher owners had approached him last month, requesting single-phase electricity to maintain CCTV cameras and provide essential power for workers. He had recommended the request to HPSEBL, but the crushers had allegedly managed to restore three-phase power supply and resumed operations.

Taking note of the situation, the Indora SDM wrote again on Tuesday to the Mining Officer, Nurpur, demanding complete disconnection of power to the stone crushers. Meanwhile, an official from HPSEBL’s Indora Electrical Division confirmed that an inquiry would be conducted to determine how three-phase power supply was restored despite previous orders.