Illegal mining on rise in Jammu, Kathua area

The illegal mining of minor minerals, including sand and bajri, is alleged to be on the rise in certain Jammu and Kathua areas. While in Jammu, the minor minerals are extracted unlawfully from Tawi river and then sold in the market at higher rates, in Kathua district, these are mainly extracted from Ravi river. While the department concerned claims that it has been able to ban the illegal activity in Jammu to a large extent, protests are held in Kathua district off and on against the extraction of minor minerals from Ravi. Following public complaints in this regard and protests by various social organisations at Keerian Gandyal, a team of J&K Water Resources Regulatory Authority (JKWRRA) led by its chairman Pramod Jain recently visited Keerian Gandyal to take stock of the situation. Other committee members included Kaneej Fatima, A M Langar, Ravi Magotra and Ravi Kant Verma. The officers of Kathua district administration, district mining department and PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control Department were also accompanying the JKWRRA team. The team later returned to dak bungalow, Kathua, where it met various delegations. The locals expressed their serious concern over the illegal mining being done in Ravi and the negative impact this illegal activity was going to have on environment and water resources in future. The deputation led by Ravi River Action Committee gave a detailed account of the unlawful activity to the visiting team while emphasising the need for an immediate action to stop it for all times to come. It may be mentioned here a total of 31 stone crushers are operational at Keerian Gandyal. Some of them are owned by the Punjab-based businessmen. The delegations alleged that the stone crushers had been violating all types of norms by illegally extracting minerals from Ravi river. It has been alleged that instead of 3 mt, 50-100 mt of the river bed has been dug at some places as a result of which the water level has gone down. All this is happening under the nose of the authorities concerned for the reasons best known to them.

They told the team members that the extracted materal was being sold in the neighbouring states, including Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, UP and Rajasthan. The team was also told that deep digging of the river bed ‘poses a severe threat to the upcoming Keerian Gandyal bridge which is being constructed at a cost of Rs 160 cr’. The place, where the digging was taking place, was hardly 50 mt from the bridge site even as the government had banned the digging of minerals up to 500 mt from any bridge in the state. Members of Stone Crushers’ Association, however, had a different view point.

Though they had no reason as to why they had been violating the government norms by digging the river bed so deep and so close the bridge site, they pleaded for not closing their units, saying they had provided employment to over 500 people locals. Whatever action the team takes to stop the illegal extraction of minerals from Ravi, the violators should not be spared.