| Despite ban, mining goes unabated in river Ravi | | Crushers sealed but supply construction material during night hours | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Mar 1: The mining operations in river Ravi in district Kathua are officially banned by the Geology and Mining department but on ground mining of minor-minerals have been going on unabated under the nose of authorities.
On papers the department has sealed the stone curries installed along the banks of River ravi in district Kathua as well as in Keerian Gandial area but during every night over hundred dumpers, laded with construction material, could be found coming out of stone crushers, raising serious question mark over the claims of sealed crushers as well as banned mining operations.
According to eyewitnesses, during daytime mining operations inside river Ravi from Lakhanpur to downstream of river Ravi to Kathua and Keerian Gandial, remained a low key affair but as the darkness descended, mining operations resumed to their full swing.
“Four earth movers were found digging construction material and loading on dumpers in J&K limits of river Ravi on Saturday afternoon, while on Sunday, dumpers machines were found digging construction material near Gujjar Basti along Keerian Gandial road”, sources said, adding that one could easily found construction material laden dumpers, coming out of various gateways from River Ravi to supply construction material to Kathua and its adjoining areas.
Sources further disclosed that officially the mining in River Ravi was banned and stone crushing units were sealed as per government records. “It is a million dollar question as how much construction material is dumped by stone crusher operators, which has not been drained after many months of sealing”, sources said, adding that on actual sense, the sealed stone crushers have been running their operations during the night hours and remained closed for day hours, to befool the public.
District Mining Officer (DMO) Kathua Rajinder Singh said that all the stone crushers in J&K limits along Ravi river have been sealed but mining in Punjab limits have been going on. He refuted the reports that mining in J&K limits have been going and claimed that after abolition of toll tax, construction material from Punjab limits have been supplied to J&K limits. |
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