Date | Oct 04, 2017:

An online portal launched for lodging complaints against illegal mining is proving to be of no help for the residents of the effected villages in Majri block in Kharar sub-division, as people are not aware about the portal.

Additional Deputy Commissioner(ADC) Charandev Singh Mann, the nodal officer who is looking into the illegal mining-related complaints told Chandigarh Newsline that they are receiving complaints on the helpline numbers of the district administration. They are taking action based on the complaints and have also informing the police.

When asked how many complaints they have received, Mann said that they have not received any complaint on the online portal PB-Grams. He added that people find it convenient to lodge their complaints on the telephone helpline. The residents of the effected villages in the Majri block, however, said that they even do not know about the portal and when it was launched by the district administration.

“We were never told about any such portal. The mining officials should tell that how we can lodge the complaints. It is an eyewash, we still lodge the complaints with the local mining officials and we can claim that these officials used to leak out the information to the illegal miners,” said Sukhwinder Singh, a resident of Khijrabaad village. Sukhwinder further said that launching such a portal without creating any awareness is of no help. The online portal was launched in September after several complaints of illegal mining poured in from the Majri block.

The Deputy Commissioner (DC) Gurpreet Kaur Sapra had already showed her displeasure on the non-cooperation of the mining department and said that it is the responsibility of the mining department to inform the police and the district administration if illegal mining still goes on in the area.

(Source: http://indianexpress.com/)