The State Government seems the least bothered over the illegal mining going on in full swing in the State. It is choosing to look the other way as the enforcement agencies and social activists, opposing the menace, are being attacked repeatedly by the mining mafias and their henchmen with impunity.
Ramnagar area keeps bearing the brunt of the mafias going for such audacious attacks under the nose of the law-enforcing forces. Such attacks have happened thrice in just two months there - something that raises the question over the State Government’s intention to curb illegal mining.
Things look grim after a trainee Indian Forest Service officer Kalyani, looking into Terai-west forest division, was attacked last Wednesday night in the Ramnagar's Baintkheri area. Before this, the chairman Uttarakhand Forest Development Corporation, Harish Dhami was assaulted in Ramnagar's Koshi area on April 8 close on the heels of the statehood activist Prabhat Dhyani and social activists Munish Kumar being attacked on March 3.
Though Bailparao police, Ramnagar, claimed to have registered a case against the suspects who allegedly attacked Kalyani and her team these formalities seem to have hardly deterred the mining mafia in this Terai belt.
With such important people being attacked in such audacious manner, the common people are naturally scared. Significantly, Dhami who is considered close to the Chief Minister had said after being attacked that he would take up the matter with the Chief Minister.
But the fact is that despite occasional raids by the enforcement agencies, illegal mining goes on unhindered in different parts of the region. A former student union leader was also killed in Udham Singh Nagar's Sitarganj areas in December 2014 over illegal mining issue in the Terai-belt of the State.
“The CM lacks the spunk to take on those who have been indulging in unauthorized mining while throwing a dare to the government,” a worried resident of Ramnagar said.