“Illegal mining has become a huge problem in Madhya Pradesh as the stakes are too high and those involved get huge monetary returns by indulging in this activity.” This was pointed out by state chief secretary Avani Vaish during an informal interaction with a group of media-persons at the State Academy of Administration here on Sunday afternoon. The chief secretary, who retires at the end of April, stressed the need for joint operation against the illegal miners and said there should be a coordinated initiative by revenue, police and forest department officers whenever any raid is required to be conducted to stop illegal mining.
The chief secretary said there is extensive illegal mining and a large part of this problem is linked to the complicated procedure for issuing mining licences. To curb the illegal mining, it is necessary to simplify the procedure so that the licence for minor minerals could be issued promptly within a week or two,
State director-general of police Nandan Dube said on this occasion that a lot has been said (in the media) about the murder of young IPS officer Narendra Kumar in Morena district. The CBI is investigating the case and would be unravelling the findings before the court.
He agreed that there have been assaults on government officers. He also underlined the fact that people indulge in illegal mining activity in districts like Panna and Chhattarpur bordering Uttar Pradesh to take advantage of the difference in the price of sand across the border.
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NGT tells MoEF: survey firms near kaziranga
AGE correspondent
New Delhi, April 22
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has asked the ministry of environment and forest to conduct a detailed survey on the number of industrial and mining units functioning in the vicinity of the Kaziranga National Park in Assam.
Taking strong exception to the failure of the ministry to conduct a survey in the park’s vicinity, including the tiger reserve and the Karbi-Anglong Elephant reserve, the NGT has expressed its displeasure at the ministry’s failure to come up with a reply.
If no reply is filed till May 23, the case would be decided on its merits, the National Green Tribunal warned.
The order has been reinforced by the Supreme Court’s recent directive that no mining activities can be undertaken in the buffer zone around tiger reserves. Activist Rohit Chaudhary who had filed this petition has also submitted a list of stone crushers and mining units and also stone quarries operating in this area.
Earlier on February 15, the bench had restrained the MoEF from granting any fresh approval to all these units which were operating in the vicinity of the Kaziranga National Park.
Choudhary had filed an RTI asking for details on these mining units which had revealed there were 19 stone quarrying units in the region. Ten of these were within five kilometres of the national park and the rest were located between five to 10 kilometres of the parks radius.