DEHRADUN | Feb 12, 2015: Chief minister Harish Rawat took a strong exception to the rise in cases of massive illegal quarrying going on in ecologically-sensitive areas near Ganga and other river sides in different districts reportedly with forest officials' alleged connivance, for the last about two weeks.
These districts where over 40 to 90 cases of illegal mining were reported from each district, during the period, include Pauri, Tehri, Haridwar, Nainital Udham Singh Nagar and Bageshwar.
Rawat was angry with officials for their failure to check illegal quarrying, after he came to know despite his clear-cut instructions to put to an end to the illegal trade weeks ago, quarrying in blatant violation of MoEF's norms on SC's directive has been going on in Srinagar, Rudraprayag, Gaucher, Karanpryag, Devprayag, Simli and Haridwar.
Rawat immediately called an emergency meeting with top officials including chief secretary N Ravi Shankar and chairman of Uttararkhand Forest Corporation or Van Nigam, Harish Dhami, minutes after he received the complaints of illegal trade from different quarters.
Addressing a meeting with top officials on Wednesday at Secretariat, Rawat asked them to order a probe into the complaints of illegal quarrying with immediate effect, and punish the officials responsible for the crime on being proved their involvement in the illegal trade.
"Although, we are in favour of striking a balance between environment and development but that does not mean we will tolerate all those responsible for encouraging illegal quarrying in the areas falling within rivers' closer proximity," said chief secretary N Ravi Shankar.
Dubbing this illegal trade as an unpardonable crime, Rawat warned senior officials against initiating strict action against them if they failed to prevent illegal mining.
Pulling up senior officials for their inability to fulfil the targets of revenue through mining and other sources in Van Nigam for the current financial year, Rawat made it clear ratio of revenue came down primarily due to rise in the cases of illegal mining in most the districts.
A senior official in state government made it clear while quarrying within the permissible limits in river sides and other ecologically sensitive low-lying areas close to water bodies, helps fetch revenue; illegal mining is encouraged to evade revenue to the tune of hundreds of crores by officials- mafia hidden links to cause heavy losses to state exchequer.
State BJP leadership has welcomed the state government' move to check the illegal quarrying.
Describing the initiative as first of its kind, leader of opposition Ajay Bhatt said: the illegal trade will come to an end only if Rawat ji' instructions are followed on the ground", said Bhatt.
(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)