The team of district mining task force led by Sadar SDO Aditya Ranjan came down heavily on illegally running stone crusher units in Meru area of the district.
The team members reached Meru in the morning and started their drive. The drive was going on till the time of filing of this report and during last more than eight hours it demolished at least a dozen stone crusher units in the area.
Earlier, DC Ravishankar Shukla had constituted a task force to demolish illegal crusher units as complaints were regularly pouring in his office that in forest areas many persons are running crusher units without any permission or paper. SDO Aditya Ranjan was given the responsibility to lead the task force which comprised of Executive Magistrate Kumud Kumar Jha, District Mining Officer, Assistant Mining Officer, Factory Inspector, Inspectors and commercial tax officers.
Last week the task force had demolished many such units in Ichak block of the district and today Meru area of Sadar block was its target. The task force reached Meru along with good number of policemen and equipments required for demolishing such units. As the information of this massive drive reached to the owners and workers of the units they all fled away leaving the sites alone.
The task force has seized many machines and crushed stone chips from the sites with boulders kept there for making stone chips. It has also seized some tractors and heavy machines from the sites. According to sources in the morning the task force had taken some staffs into custody also. The detail of seizure and number of demolished units has not yet been disclosed by the district administration.
This step of district administration has created panic among the stone chip makers and sellers of the district. Since last few years Hazaribagh has earned a bad name in the production of stone chips.
Reports of illegal stone crushers and mining of stone boulders were regularly coming in local newspapers since long. In Barkattha, Vishnugarh, Barhi, Ichak, Sadar and Daru blocks of the district more than 100 such stone crushers were running since long damaging the environment and forests.