In a move to curb the growing menace of illegal mining, Himachal Pradesh on Monday imposed a three month blanket ban on transportation of construction material like sand and grit to neighbouring states Punjab and Haryana.
In a high level special review meeting on illegal mining, chief minister Virbhadra Singh said that a blanket ban for a period of three months would be imposed on transportation of construction material to other States.
Singh said that this short term ban would help in meeting out the construction material requirements within the State and check the illegal mining of minerals which are being smuggled to neighbhouring States.
He said that a task force would be constituted in each district to check not only the illegal mining but also to suggest ways and means to stop these actives in future.
He said that the task force would constitute local administration, police, forest and mining staff.
The Chief minister said that stringent action would be taken against smuggling of construction material to outside the state and the vehicle would be confiscated.
He asked the concerned officers to take up the matter regarding early filing of reply to waive off the restriction imposed by National Green Tribunal (NGT) for carrying out mining activities or removal of sand from river banks in the State.
Singh said recently the state government has formulated its own ‘Himachal Pradesh Mineral Policy-2013’ to regulate the mining activities in the State in a systematic and scientific manner and to protect environment.
Singh said that mining material was required to develop infrastructure in the State and housing needs of the people, thus proper mining activity should be ensured.
He said that in order to check illegal mining bar-coded colourful ‘M-form’ would be made available by the Government to all the lease holders in the State.
Deputy Commissioners and SPs of border districts Solan, Sirmour, Una and Kangra and SP Baddi- Barotiwala were invited to suggest measures to stop illegal activities.
Principal secretary revenue and industries Tarun Shridhar said that Mining Act and Rules of both Central Government and Himachal Pradesh were strong enough to check these illegal activities and new mining Policy was framed to meet out the construction needs within the State.