-SATISH HANDA

Haryana State Mining & Transport Minister Mool Chand Sharma after conducting few raids himself in the state against illegal mining going on, overloading of vehicles and free movement of Punjab private transporters buses in Haryana state without permits has written to Cabinet Home Minister Anil Vij to cooperate him and provide police force to take action against mafias involved in corrupt practices causing huge revenue loss to Haryana state government. According to Sharma, police seen sheltering those involved in illegal mining and functioning of screening plants in prominent mining zones in Ambala, Yamunanagar, Karnal. Panipat, Sonepat, Faridabad, Gurugram, Mewat, Mohindergarh-Narnaul, Bhiwani and Charkhi Dadri districts in the state around river side, hilly and Aravali areas known for illegal mining in the state.

Information reveals, Supreme Court of India has also raised a question over government working as regard large scale illegal mining going on in the state. Sharma suggested management of state mining department should be assigned to an IAS officer instead of IPS officer at present been controlled by Amitabh Dhillon who according to Sharma is competent enough to stop illegal mining but it is not possible for a single police officer to stop such a huge illegal mining going on in the state by a single officer. Mool Chand Sharma raised a question over police officers desire to have their posting in mining areas since without police support such a large illegal mining and overloading is not possible. He said, mining department in the state facing acute shortage of vigilance staff and efforts are being made to fill up all vacancies immediately.

Meanwhile, Cabinet Home Minister Anil Vij in a recent statement at Rohtak strongly condemned those police officers running private parallel police stations in the state. He said, among complaints made by people in the state, majority of them are related to police department. Vij also conducted surprise raids at various police stations across the state from time to time and also suspended few policemen. He also demanded a report from SPs in various districts where no action was taken by police stations as regard cases registered by the police since a long time.

Mining department in the state recently raided, sealed as many as seven screening plants illegally functioning at village Rau Majra, Mianpur, Sangrani and Shahpur near Naraingarh in Ambala district and also impounded two dumpers and a JCB machine and FIRs were registered against them under NGT Act since these plants were not having MDL Mineral Dealer license, permission from state government and no objection certificate from state pollution control department as per Section 33A of water Act, Section 31A of the air Act and Environmental  Protection Act 1986.