Punjab Govt Committed To End Illegal Mining: Minister Meet Hayer

Chandigarh, June 15 (TNA) Taking a serious note of illegal mining and ensuring the availability of sand/gravel to the public at affordable rates, Punjab Mining and Geology Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer said that it is the commitment of the State Government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to completely eliminate illegal mining and make sand/gravel available to the people of the state at affordable rates of Rs. 5.50 per cubic feet at public mining and commercial mining sites being run by the State Government. The Enforcement Wing of the department is being readied to stop the illegal activities.

It was claimed Wednesday by the Mining and Geology Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, after a meeting with top officials of the Punjab Police and Mining at Punjab Bhawan here. Earlier last evening, he also held a meeting with the contractors and crusher owners regarding commercial mining sites last evening and gave necessary instructions.

Meet Hayer said that continuous checking should be ensured by forming a joint committee of field officers of the mining and police department for monitoring at the ground level. The mining and police officials will send their reports to the higher authorities regarding this at regular intervals. Illegal mining will not be tolerated in the districts with mining sites, especially the border districts where the international border is located.

Punjab Police has allocated 50 personnel to the enforcement wing of the Mining Department to keep a check on the illegal mining. Mining Minister further said that after the successful operation of 55 public mining sites at the rate of Rs. 5.50 per cubic feet by the department on the instructions of the Chief Minister, there is now full preparation for the operation of commercial mining sites.

Out of the 40 commercial mining sites 19 are ready to start and the rest will be completed soon. With the commissioning of these new commercial mining clusters, people will be able to get sand/gravel from places near their homes. The government has a target to start 100 commercial clusters in the state. In this regard, last evening in a meeting with the contractors, the minister clearly said that people should get sand on the price fixed. Any negligence and illegal activity in this matter will not be tolerated.

The meeting was attended by Secretary Mining and Geology Gurkirat Kirpal Singh, Director DPS Kharbanda and Chief Engineer Drainage-cum-Mines and Geology N. K. Jain, Special DGP Internal Security R.N. Dhoke, IGP Headquarters Sukhchain Singh Gill and DIG Amritsar Ranjit Singh Dhillon.