Kathua : District Mineral Officer (DMO) Rajinder Singh on Thursday seized 16 vehicles involved in illegal transportation of sand and Bajri in Ding Amba, Logate and Lakhanpur areas, here during night hours.
Eleven vehicles were detained by a police team atRamkote while checking their documents. Similarly three vehicles were detained at Lakhanpur and one vehicle was caught carrying mineral illegally from the stone crusher in SaharKhad.
On receiving the information, the District Mineral Officer rushed to the spot and seized all 16 vehicles as per the MM (DR) Act of 1957 and SRO-105 of 2016.
The DMO informed that the seized vehicles bearing Nos- JK14G-1382, JK14H-7516, JK14F-7742, JK08M-1932, JK14H-7123, JK14J-0270, JK14H-7140, JK14H-9510, JK14H-9881, JK14D-1820 and JK14D-1663 have been kept in the custody of ASI Rajesh Singh at Police Post Ramkote.
“This is third major action against the sand miners in Billawar area where the violators usually gather sand from local nallahs during rainy season, dump at various locations and sell it further to the consumers at exorbitant rates when scarcity of sand arises” the DMO added.
The DMO added that another vehicle bearing No:- PB35AJ-6206 transporting mineral to the state of Punjab was also detained by police post Hatli and three more vehicles- PB05AB-4055, PB02BM-9628, HP12C-6777 were kept in the custody of PS Lakhanpur after seizure.
The DMO Kathua informed that no vehicle can transport raw or finished mineral from Nallah, rivers, stone crushers and other mining places without valid documents and for transportation such material from one place to another, approved e-challans are required.
He further informed that a cell has been constituted in the DMO for approving e-challans of vendors and till now over 1200 such challans have been approved for stone crushers for transporting finished material while e-challans for raw minerals shall be approved after 15 September with the resumption of mining activities.
It is pertinent to mention here that District Administration and Kathua Police have decided that mining material shall only be transported between 6.00 am to 11.00 pm outside UT and instructions have been passed to DMO for not approving e-challans between 11.00 pm to 6.00 am so that illegal mining and illegal transportation of minerals can be checked.
