HimVani
Shimla (Mar 10): Himachal Pradesh government is taking action against 24 illicit crushers which had been declared illegal by the state government and the CAG report pointed recover of Rs 9 crore from them.
This was informed in the state Assembly during Question Hour today by Industry Minister Kishan Kapoor, who was replying to a query by Gangu Ram Musafir (Phachhad-Cong) and a supplementary asked by Kaul Singh Thakur(Darang-Cong) and Mukesh Agnihotri (Santokhgarh-Cong).
The minister informed that as many as 24 illegal crusher were mining on river bed of Chaki-Khud on Punjab-Himachal border, which was later banned by the state government. He said that now 4 such crushers were still mining in the area, which was being allowed by laxity of Punjab as concerned authority did not abandon mining in their jurisdiction. The minister said that recently five JCB (earth-mover) and a truck were compounded.
Kapoor said that 1,532 cases of illegal mining have been registered between April 2010 to Feb 20, 2011. He also raised concerned about similar mining activity near Poanta over Yamuna river basin as massive mining activities is continue toward Uttarakhand. The minister showed his inability to deal with mining mafia in border areas as inter-state bounder in Chaki and Yumuna river is not properly demarcated to fix the responsibility on miners.
Meanwhile. Speaker Tulsi Ram informed that the Public Accounts Committee(PAC) is also taking action over CAG report to recover Rs 9 crore from illegal crusher owners in this regard.
