Punjab illegal mining: Raids on, offenders go underground

Arun Sharma
Tribune News Service
Anandpur Sahib, November 1

The district police on Thursday conducted raids to nab the persons accused of illegal mining on the Sutlej riverbed here. DSP Raminder Singh Kahlon said teams were sent to the houses of the accused at Agampur village and some stone crushers, but they were not found there.

All accused have gone underground after an FIR was registered at Anandpur Sahib police station on Tuesday, he added.

A case under Sections 2(1) and 4(1) of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act and Section 188 of the IPC had been registered against brothers Satbir Singh and Himmat Singh of Agampur village and Rakesh Kumar of Royal Crushers. The owners of JTR Crusher and Supreme Crusher were also booked for the same offence after large-scale illegal mining was detected on the riverbed. Five-year imprisonment or a fine of Rs 5 lakh or both can be imposed on the guilty under the Act.

Ropar district has 201 crushers, of which about 130 are operational. According to an estimate, at least 50 truckloads of material are supplied by each daily. A tipper carrying 850 cubic ft of sand is sold for around Rs 20,000 in Chandigarh and nearby towns, sources said. However, only one quarry (Harsa Bela) has been operational in the district for the past several months.

Illegal mining is rampant in Ropar district, largely due to the mining mafia’s links with politicians and enforcement agencies. The Mining Department, which has got hundreds of cases registered against truck and tractor-trailer drivers for illegal mining, has reportedly dragged its feet when it comes to contractors of big quarries. Raids conducted by teams of the district administration found violations of mining norms at the quarries of Baihara, Swarha and Harsa Bela during the past year. The riverbeds were found dug up to 40 ft at several places, way above the permissible limit of 10 ft in these cases. However, no criminal case pertaining to these quarries was registered.

Ropar SSP Swapan Sharma denied that there was any lapse on the part of the police. He said there were six police teams to check illegal mining in the district. However, they could not take action as they did not get information about the goings-on near Agampur village, he added.

Constable was attacked in May

On the intervening night of May 10 and 11, Constable Jaswant Singh had stopped a sand-laden tipper at Kiratpur Sahib to check its papers. Soon, the tipper owner and his goons reached the spot and thrashed the constable, who sustained injuries on the jaws. They also took away the tipper. His colleagues did not register his complaint. His statement was published in a newspaper, but he was compelled to withdraw it. In his new statement to the police, Jaswant submitted that he was injured when he fell down while chasing the tipper driver.