| Rajouri: Early Times exposes crushers causing environmental, economic loss to Govt | | Rivers damaged, PHE infrastructure affected | | Ankit Kessar
Early Times Report
Rajouri, Jan 29: The world is talking about environment conservation and we are murdering our natural resources. The illegal and unscientific mining practices going on at large scale in the District Rajouri have led to a large scale damage to river bodies while the PHE department's infrastructure has also been affected.
As per reports, the approved scientific plan put in place by G&M department has been thrown to trashbin in the district and large scale unscientific and illegal mining has been going on unabated in most of the river bodies. The authorities have also received many complaints regarding unprofessional and unregulated mining in various river beds of the district, which is in complete violation of the approved plan, sources said. He divulged that important public assets like protection walls, dug-wells, roads, Temples and bridges as well as irrigation canals, have come under the direct risk due to the illegal mining practices.
According to sources Right from Biji to Sunderbani and from Khandli bridge to Kalakote, in almost all the river bodies of the district, illegal and unscientific mining practices are going on unabated. "Both manpower and machinery, including heavy machinery like chain machines and JCBs, have been put to use for mining from the river bed.
"It is not a small issue. We can say that river bodies of the district have been mercilessly murdered and high authorities of G&M department continue to be mute spectators. We suspect that both senior officers are hand in glove with the illegal miners and a central investigation agency should be asked to probe the matter," the locals said. Social Activists of rajouri said that no royalty is being paid by the crushers resulting into loss to the Govt running into millions. The crushers have mined millions of tonnes of earth material from the river beds and caused a permanent dent to the environment of the district.
It is very shocking to note that the crushers running in the district are not following this compulsory norm, the locals added. They appealed the LG administration to investigate the issue as it deals a serious blow to the Environment and Economy of the Union Territory. After various complaints National Green Tribunal also visited rajouri some days ago and collected all information and data regarding the crushers. |
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