Ropar: Stone crusher owners oppose new mining rules

Tribune News Service

Ropar, September 23

Demanding reversal of the decisions to raise registration fee by 10 times and setting up of weighing bridges and fencing at their units, a large number of stone crushers and washing plants owners staged a protest at Mini Secretariat, here today. The protesters handing over a memorandum of their demands to Deputy Commissioner Dr Preeti Yadav also sought a meeting with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann in this regard.

The protesters said they had already discussed the problems being faced by them with Mining Minister Harjot Singh Bains and Principal Secretary, Mining, Krishan Kumar but to no avail. They said if their meeting was not arranged with the CM within one week, they would start an agitation on September 30.

District Stone Crushers Owners' Union president Ajinder Singh said their units were lying idle for the past eight months due to which they had suffered losses of crores of rupees and thousands of labourers and drivers had been rendered unemployed.

Now, the state government in its new mining policy has increased the registration fee of stone crushers from Rs 10,000 to Rs 1 lakh annually. Besides, the stone crusher owners had been asked to set up weighing bridges at their property, he added.

Another operator Gurmukh Singh Saini said according to the new policy, all owners were supposed to deposit a security amount between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 5 lakh which was unjustified as the raw material to them was sold by a mining contractor, not by the government.

The DC said their grievances regarding new policy would be conveyed to the state government.

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#Bhagwant Mann