Rampant use of heavy vehicles, machinery near wildlife area despite ban
Yash
Khajuria
JAMMU, Jan 28: Despite ban on use of heavy machineries and other equipments near the wildlife area in the outskirts of Jammu to prevent noise pollution and maintaining eco friendly atmosphere, the illegal mining practice is on full swing near wildlife area at Sidhra.
Pertinently, the use of heavy machinery is strictly banned at the areas adjoining to the wildlife stretch. Despite this, the Geology and Mining Department violates the ban using heavy machines and other infrastructure including heavy vehicles for mining practices.
Sources disclosed that State Government had cited a number of objections on heavy machineries and the trucks for the mining and transportation of the material from the sites. “The Geology and Mining department and the agencies are planning to halt the mining as all the objections cited by the Wildlife Protection Department are true and the departments have no answer to them, they added.
Moreover, the ban was imposed by District Magistrate Jammu on the extraction of sand and gravel from river beds but the illegal practice is continuous due to nexus between powerful mining mafia and officials of the department.
Owing to this, state exchequer is bearing the loss in crores of rupees every month as the Geology and Mining Department was authorized to receive royalty on extraction of major as well as minor minerals in the state at the rates fixed by the Government as per scheduled SRO 85.
When contacted, Rajeshwar Singh, District Level Officer, Geology and Mining department, said they had received a copy from the state government regarding the ban on use of heavy machinery and equipments for the mining near the wildlife region at Sidhra and the department was preparing to answer the copy.
He denied any sort of illegal mining in the region by the mafia and said that mining was going on within the guidelines and under the tendered area.
When contacted, Conservator Wild Life General, Asif M Sagar, said the use of heavy machinery and heavy vehicles was adversely affecting the wildlife in the region and now they were defining the eco-sensitive zones of various wildlife regions after which they serve a notice to the concerned department and would also take help from the pollution control board.
According to Additional Deputy Commissioner, Ravi Shanker Sharma, it was mainly the task of Geology and Mining Department and their job was only to check whether any structure was endangering or any issue regarding the revenue. “We have asked the concerned SHO’s and Tehsildars to check the mining sites under their jurisdictions though we have constituted no special squad to keep eye on mining mafia” he added.
Mukhtar Ahmed, Mining Engineer Geology and Mining Department told that they had mostly issued royalty contracts to different contractors who pay in advance to the department. There are many sites where department itself charges the royalty due to non-availability of contractor and illegal mining is prevalent at those sites, he admitted.
JAMMU, Jan 28: Despite ban on use of heavy machineries and other equipments near the wildlife area in the outskirts of Jammu to prevent noise pollution and maintaining eco friendly atmosphere, the illegal mining practice is on full swing near wildlife area at Sidhra.
Pertinently, the use of heavy machinery is strictly banned at the areas adjoining to the wildlife stretch. Despite this, the Geology and Mining Department violates the ban using heavy machines and other infrastructure including heavy vehicles for mining practices.
Sources disclosed that State Government had cited a number of objections on heavy machineries and the trucks for the mining and transportation of the material from the sites. “The Geology and Mining department and the agencies are planning to halt the mining as all the objections cited by the Wildlife Protection Department are true and the departments have no answer to them, they added.
Moreover, the ban was imposed by District Magistrate Jammu on the extraction of sand and gravel from river beds but the illegal practice is continuous due to nexus between powerful mining mafia and officials of the department.
Owing to this, state exchequer is bearing the loss in crores of rupees every month as the Geology and Mining Department was authorized to receive royalty on extraction of major as well as minor minerals in the state at the rates fixed by the Government as per scheduled SRO 85.
When contacted, Rajeshwar Singh, District Level Officer, Geology and Mining department, said they had received a copy from the state government regarding the ban on use of heavy machinery and equipments for the mining near the wildlife region at Sidhra and the department was preparing to answer the copy.
He denied any sort of illegal mining in the region by the mafia and said that mining was going on within the guidelines and under the tendered area.
When contacted, Conservator Wild Life General, Asif M Sagar, said the use of heavy machinery and heavy vehicles was adversely affecting the wildlife in the region and now they were defining the eco-sensitive zones of various wildlife regions after which they serve a notice to the concerned department and would also take help from the pollution control board.
According to Additional Deputy Commissioner, Ravi Shanker Sharma, it was mainly the task of Geology and Mining Department and their job was only to check whether any structure was endangering or any issue regarding the revenue. “We have asked the concerned SHO’s and Tehsildars to check the mining sites under their jurisdictions though we have constituted no special squad to keep eye on mining mafia” he added.
Mukhtar Ahmed, Mining Engineer Geology and Mining Department told that they had mostly issued royalty contracts to different contractors who pay in advance to the department. There are many sites where department itself charges the royalty due to non-availability of contractor and illegal mining is prevalent at those sites, he admitted.
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