₹2 cr penalty slapped for mining violations in Nainital, US Nagar

Intensifying its campaign against illegal mining and related violations, the state mining department conducted raids and slapped a penalty of about Rs 2 crore in three cases of mining violations in Nainital and Udham Singh Nagar districts in last two days.

The department took action against large-scale illegal mining happening in Baelpadav of Semalchod area of Nainital, said Raj Pal Legha, the deputy director of mining department on Thursday.

“During our raid, we found that one Maninder Singh was mining RBM (river bed material like sand, stones) from his land without any permission,” he said.

Legha said according to a rough estimation Maninder Singh had mined over 11,500 sqmt of RBM from his land. “We have slapped a penalty of Rs 90 lakh against Maninder Singh for illegal mining,” he added.

On Wednesday, the department conducted raids at two stone crusher units in Nainital and Udham Singh Nagar respectively. Legha said for illegal storage of RBM, they slapped a penalty of Rs 46 lakh on the owner of GN Stone Crusher in Udham Singh Nagar and also seized his crusher. “We also slapped a penalty of Rs 57 lakh on the owner of Sagar Stone crusher in Nainital district, where we found illegal storage of RBM,” he said.

Legha said anti-illegal mining raids will continue in both the districts. “We want to ensure no illegal mining happens in this area. We have been getting inputs about illegal mining from various areas. And accordingly, we are taking action,” he said.