KODERMA: The district administration has imposed a total fine of Rs 18 crore on 38 miners in the past 11 months as part of its ongoing drive to curb illegal mining activities.
“A penalty of Rs 2.14 crore has already been collected from the owner of a vehicle which was involved in transportation of the illegally extracted minerals,” district mining officer Mihir Salkar said, adding, “The rest of the penalty amount will be realised soon. In case of non-payment, a case will be filed against the miners.”
In the past 11 months, we seized 155 vehicles and lodged FIRs against 48 people,” Salkar said.
Deputy commissioner Ramesh Gholap said the aforementioned action was taken based on specific complaints and after they received tip-offs regarding illegal mining activities, such as stone quarrying and mica extraction. “The administration recently sealed six mica godowns and a case was registered in the DC’s court, which ordered the auction of 914 tonnes of mica which was illegally stored in those godowns,” he added.
As part of their drive, Gholap said that for the first time in Koderma, the mine areas were measured to assess the royalty theft which was going on unrestrained. In terms of the royalties earned in the current fiscal year, Salkar said that the department has received Rs 11 crore till now and the amount is expected to go up to Rs 17 crore in 2020-21 fiscal year.
As part of its drive, the administration even conducted raids at Sirsirwa forest area where illegal stone excavation has been going on for many years. Sirsirwa falls in wildlife sanctuary area. “We had seized many machines and an FIR was lodged against 23 people there and a fine of Rs 14 crore was imposed. During our assessment, we found that around 3.25 lakh cubic meter stone was excavated from the wildlife sanctuary area,” Salkar said.
“Our drive will continue till illegal mining is wiped out from the district completely,” Gholap said.