Nalagarh police unearth 11 unauthorised mounds

The Nalagarh police cracked down on the mining mafia, unearthing 11 mounds of quarry material piled up unauthorisedly along the road at Aduwal in Nalagarh. SP Baddi Vinod Dhiman said, “These unauthorised mounds of quarry material have been mined unauthorisedly from Mahadev khud by the mining mafia. They have been detected by a police team which was inspecting the area following seizure of three earth excavation machines and as many tippers from Mahadev Khud.”

The piled-up material is usually transported in vehicles as per convenience by the mining mafia. The staff of the mining department registered a case of theft under section 303(2) and 3(5) of the BNS and under section 21 of the Mining Act, and further probe was underway to unearth the network of miscreants indulging in this unauthorised activity.

Dhiman said the police are specially keeping a vigil on the border areas which are vulnerable and many big seizures have been made in the last few months. Baddi industrial belt shares its border with Punjab in Nalagarh and Haryana in Baddi. The mining mafia manages to slip into the adjoining state owing to the presence of several porous routes along the borders.

The scale of illegal mining underway in this belt can be assessed from the fact that as many as 20 earth excavation machines, 80 tippers, 130 tractors, five trucks, and two poclain machines have been seized by the Baddi police this year. The seizure also includes 33 earth excavation machines, 46 tippers, seven tractors, five trucks, and two cars in 54 FIRs registered this year. As many as 261 challans have been issued under the mining act alone.