6 months on, no action for excavation on govt lands

Nagpur: Despite preliminary survey confirming murrum excavation from state-owned zudpi jungle and hillocks in August last year, Wardha district administration is yet to levy penalty and take action against concerned companies in the last six months.
Though murrum excavation from government land has been banned, it was pilfered without permission for construction of Samruddhi Mahamarg stretch in Wardha district.
BJP MLC Girish Vyas told TOI, “Murrum has been excavated illegally from government-owned lands and hillocks for Samruddhi Mahamarg right from Nagpur to Mumbai. The concerned departments have turned a blind eye towards destruction of government property, environment and huge revenue loss. Therefore, I have submitted a legislative assembly question (LAQ) during the ongoing budget session asking whether such illegal excavation happened and who all are responsible for it.”
“I have also sought information whether the illegal excavation has benefited Samruddhi Mahamarg and the government,” he said.
TOI, on August 27, 2019, had reported that a survey was conducted by Selu tehsildar Mahendra Sonone and his team. Sonone had issued notices to Mumbai-based Afcons Infrastructure Limited on August 31, 2019.
In the notices, Sonone had stated that murrum was excavated from zudpi jungle on khasra no. 7 at mouza Itala, hillock with khasra no. 210 at mouza Kotumba and hillock with khasra no. 65 at mouza Giroli, all owned by the government.
Later, activist Sandip Khedkar from Kotumba had sought information under RTI Act from Wardha mining department and concerned gram panchayats as to whether permission was given for excavation of murrum from these three parcels of land. All the authorities had denied having given permission for the excavation.
Khedkar also pointed out that excavation was also done in khasra no. 206 at mouza Kotumba, owned by forest department. Information obtained under RTI from social forestry department revealed that these three parcels of land were having 37,917 trees, which were over 30-year-old.
Wardha district administration has not taken action against the concerned companies as on date ignoring the fact that government had stopped giving lease of its land for excavating murrum and also it cannot give permission to excavate murrum from zudpi jungle and forest land.
Officials told TOI that while Selu tehsil office and mining department have completed their surveys, land records department has started its own verification on Monday.
Murrum was also excavated from land owned by Hyderabad-based Cozy Properties without permission from the owner as well as the district administration. Following complaints by Cozy Properties, Wardha district administration had completed all formalities and levied a fine of Rs238.99 crore on Afcons in December last year. In this case, the police also had registered offences against officials of Afcons, its petty contractor and arrested them.
Afcons had challenged the punitive action in this case in the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court. Cozy Properties had also filed petitions.
Afcons spokesperson said, “We have been repeatedly clarifying our stand in this context that Afcons has never been involved in any illegal excavation. It may also be noted that in a similar issue, HC has granted stay in favour of Afcons.”
Local residents had also lodged complaints about similar excavation in Digras lake and excess excavation in Bor river. No action has been taken in these cases also.