After High Court rap, cops tighten noose around mining mafia

Arun Sharma

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Ropar, November 26

The pulling up of the officials concerned and especially the district police by the Punjab and Haryana High Court over illegal mining prevalent in the district for more than one decade has started yielding results. While the Mining Department has suspended the registration of 14 stone crusher units, the Nangal police have arrested a stone crusher owner allegedly for involving in illegal mining today.

The stone crusher unit owner, identified as Nasib Chand, a former sarpanch of Palata village near Nangal, allegedly dug land near his stone crusher at Nangran village. The police had also registered an FIR on September 16 against an unidentified stone crusher owner and unidentified land owner on the complaint of mining officials.

Later, the land was found to be owned by former Deputy Superintendent of Police Jagdish Singh Bhola who has been languishing in jail in a drug racket case. This land was attached by the Enforcement Department in 2015 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Case.

Though the illegal mining also continued, the police allegedly restricted their role only to register cases against unidentified accused and never bothered to arrest the main players behind it.

The Bench also rapped the police for the “sorry state of affairs” after observing that they were trying their best to shield the real culprits, “at whose instance the illegal mining operations were being carried out”.

Later, on September 17 the court directed the Senior Superintendent of Police concerned to specify the number and details of the FIRs registered under the Mines and Minerals (Regulation of Development) Act. In all, the high court had raised 17 queries for the police, the tehsildar and the district mining officer.

On November 1, the SSP in his letter to the Deputy Commissioner had stated that 13 stone crushers were found involved in illegal mining repeatedly in the recent past so their registration needed to be cancelled and the units sealed to rein in illegal mining in the district. After this, the Mining Department came into action and suspended the registration of 14 stone crushers during past few days.