In a major decision, the collector of Gwalior, Kaushlendra Vikram Singh has imposed a huge penalty of Rs 60.23 crore on leaseholders, who indulged in the illegal excavation of metal stone on the contiguous area over the allocated land.
In the order passed on Monday, collector Singh found the six leaseholders guilty of illegal mining in a report which was submitted in 2017 by the then sub-divisional magistrate Dabra, Amanveer Singh. The excavators also operate the crusher plants of metal stone used for producing concrete in the Rafadpur village area under the Dabra sub-division of the district.
“All the six were found indulged in illegal mining and they made a huge revenue evasion. Around Rs 60.23 crores have been imposed as a penalty on them. Action will also be taken in the remaining cases after resolving the complications related to demarcation, benchmarks and the delineation", Collector Singh told The Pioneer.
The collector imposed a fine of Rs 35.70 crore on mine leaseholders Sardar Singh Gurjar, Rs 7.52 crore on Munendra Mangal, 3.70 crores on Congress state general secretory Sunil Sharma, 6.44 crore on Rajesh Nikhra, 6.44 crore on Dharmendra Singh Gurjar and 45.75 lakh on Bahadur Singh.
The then SDM of Dabra had got a probe conducted with a team of tehsildars and revenue officers in Billowa and Rafadpur areas in connection with a complaint.
The SDM had submitted the inquiry report to the district mining officer (DMO). In the report, 23 leaseholders had been got guilty of illegal excavation done in the areas adjoining their allocated land.
On the basis of the report, the DMO had submitted a libel against all 23 illegal excavators before the collector court. Sources said that the DMO had framed a revenue loss of around Rs 425 crore against the offenders in the libel.
The Billaua and Rafadpur areas possess a huge quantity of metal stones and a large number of crusher plants have been set up there.
Leaders of the ruling BJP and Opposition Congress and their supporters have been allocated several hectares land. Concrete is supplied to bordering state UP in a huge quantity from there. It is said that the area is a big centre of illegal mining in the Gwalior-Chambal region.