The geology and mining department has decided to use technology to check illegal mining in various districts of the state, a senior official said on Wednesday.

While drones will monitor mining activities from the sky, sand and minerals will be transported from the site to depots on trucks equipped with global positioning system (GPS), the official said.

Trucks registered with the mining department will be permitted to transport minerals and each truck will have RFID (radio frequency identification) tags.

The decision comes at a time when the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probing the illegal mining case conducted raids at 14 places across UP and Delhi on January 5 in connection with an illegal mining case. The investigation agency registered FIRs against IAS officer B Chandrakala, MLC Ramesh Mishra, lease holders as well as staff of the mining department.

Director, geology and mining department, Roshan Jacob said the department had launched an intensive drive across the state to check illegal mining.

From April to November 2018, the department conducted 16,820 raids and realised Rs 53.67 crore penalty from people involved in illegal mining, Jacob said. As many as 869 FIRs were registered and in 855 cases petitions were filed in court, she said.

In December last year, the department conducted 2007 raids, Rs 7.43 crore penalty was collected from the people caught violating the rules, the department lodged 123 FIRs and in 62 cases, petitions were filed in court, the official added.

The enforcement team of the mining department seized 129 trucks of other states as these were being used for illegal transportation of minerals, she said.

Minimising human intervention, drones will be used to check whether the lease-holder is carrying out mining activities in the allotted area and in accordance with the quantity approved by the mining department.

Jacob said the drones will send images to the control room at the mining directorate in Lucknow and, if illegal mining is detected, the district magistrates concerned will be directed to take action.

A state government officer said the mining and geology department allotted mining leases through e- bidding in order to break the hold of the mining syndicate.

Besides launching a crackdown on illegal mining, the department promoted legal mining by allotting the maximum mining lease, the official said.

First Published: Jan 10, 2019 12:27 IST