Haridwar | May 12, 2017:
Acting on the State Government’s order to clamp down on unauthorised quarrying, the district magistrate of Haridwar Deepak Rawat led a district administration team to raid 18 stone crushers spread across the district on Thursday and slapped the owners of such stone crushers a penalty of Rs 7 crores.
Notably, around 30 stone crushers are located on the banks of Ganga in Bhogpur and Bishenpur villages in the Laksar area. The team also raided crushers located in Katarpur, Chandpur and Pherupur villages in the Pathri area of the district.
The Government sources informed that during the raid, the officials found boulders and other mining materials being stacked in violation of the rules. Besides, they found some mining lots having been dug several feet again in contravention of the mining rules. DM has given directions to the administrative officials to file FIRs against the stone crusher units found engaged in illegal mining and to slap penalty for storing mining materials, flouting the rules.
Speaking of the raids, SDM Haridwar Manish Kumar said, “We deputed three teams for conducting raids on the stone crusher units. Illegal mining was detected in several stone crushers known by the names of Lakshmi Narayan, Sidhi Vinayak, Mahalaskhmi, Mahalakhsmi and Om Sai.”
The DM Deepak Rawat said, “The matter is of tax evasion and our teams are assessing the quantum of tax dodging. Tax penalty would be imposed according to the law on these stone crushers for violating the norms.
In the initial phase, penalty to the tune of close to Rs 7 crores has been imposed on the errant stone crushers. The SDM and his team have been directed not to spare a single stone crusher indulging in tax dodging.
The measurement of the earth dug for mining inside the areas allotted to the stone crushers is being done. The detailed report of the storage and sale of such materials would be sent to the sale tax department as well.”
(Source: http://www.dailypioneer.com/)