District Mining Officer Simarpreet Kaur Dhillon wrote the letter on Tuesday after she found illegal mining activities during a surprise checking in Parol village of Mullanpur in Mohali.
The District Mining Officer has written to the District Food and Supplies Controller (DFSC) directing him not to renew the licences of the brick kiln owners, who purchase sand from illegal miners, without their permission.
District Mining Officer Simarpreet Kaur Dhillon shot off the letter on Tuesday after she found illegal mining activities during a surprise checking in Parol village of Mullanpur. She also lodged a complaint with Mullanpur police on Wednesday, on the basis of which they registered a case under Sections 4 (1) and 4 (2) of Mining Act and Section 379 of the Indian Penal Code against unknown persons.
In her complaint, she stated that she found some people carrying out illegal mining in Parol village by using a tipper truck and JCB machine. She told the police that when she raided the place the people, who were operating the JCB machine, fled from the spot leaving behind their vehicle. No arrest has been made in the case yet.
Dhillon told Chandigarh Newsline that in her letter to the DFSC on Tuesday, she has asked the officer not to renew the licenses of the brick kiln owners so that they could investigate their nexus with sand mafia. “I am also going to issue notices to the owners of the brick kilns so that we can make a recovery of the damage they had done to the area,” she said.
The mining officer added a brick kiln owner has to deposit Rs 30,000 as annual royalty to the government and submit the estimates of sand consumption to the food supplies department, on the basis of which their licences are renewed.
“During our inspection in Mullanpur area, we came to know that fresh mining was done to supply sand to the brick kilns,” she said.
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