Illegal mining site raided in Fazilka, four arrested

Our Correspondent

Fazilka, February 27

AAP MLA Narinderpal Singh Sawna, along with a police party led by DSP Subeg Singh, conducted a raid past midnight along the seepage drain in Hauz Gandhar and Chandmari villages.

The DSP said during the raid, four persons were arrested and four others were booked for illegal mining.

The police arrested Gurmeet Singh, alias Shinder, Guruditta, Baldev Singh, alias Debu, all residents of Hauz Gandhar village and Veerpal Singh of Kheowali Bodla village, when they were allegedly excavating sand from the drain. The four arrested suspects and their other accomplice Baldev Singh of Kheowali Bodla were booked under Section 379 of the IPC and Section 21 of the Mining Act.

In the other incident at Chandimari village, the police booked three persons — Chhinder Singh, Manga Singh and Joginder Singh — all of Saidoke Uttar. The suspects have been booked on the allegation that they used to sell the sand after excavating it from their fields. The police have confiscated three tractor-trailers.

The government had opened four sand quarries in the district, two in Fazilka sub-division — Badha 1 and 2 villages —and two in Jalalabad sub-division — Gariba Sandar and Tharewala villages.

The work at Badha 1 quarry could not started since its opening on February 6 while the work on Badha 2 quarry was suspended a couple of days ago as the owner reportedly refused to supply the sand at rate of Rs 2 per cubic foot to the government, resulting in no sand available at any legal quarry in Fazilka sub-division presently.

Reportedly, the sand mafia has again become active. During the middle of the night, animal carts can been spotted coming from the Salemshah road where according to sources, illegal mining is carried out with impunity allegedly at the behest of some ruling party leaders. It is stated that organised theft is carried out in the wee hours.

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