The Himachal Government has issued fresh instructions to all the deputy commissioners of the State to convene monthly meetings of all the concerned officers to review the action taken by them against illegal mining.
A spokesman of the State Government said that the State Government has asked the deputy commissioners to constitute committees of HPPWD, Revenue and Forest Officials, since most of the routes leading to the river beds have been carved out illegallyon the forest land/Government land and the mineral so extracted is being stacked on the acquired width of the PWD roads.
The spokesman said that the deputy commissioners have also been directed to ask the HPSEBl officials to ensure that metering of the crusher units be done at the level of transformers/sub-stations to eliminate the possibilities of theft of electricity.
The deputy commissioners would also ensure through surprise inspections that no diesel generated sets are used illegally by crusher owners, he said.
The spokesman said that to decentralise the powers under the mining acts to take cognizance of illegal mining activities, the Government has delegated powers to 39 officials of different categories of various departments like Revenue, HPPWD, I & PH, Industries, BDOs, RTOs etc.
A sub divisional level flying squad under the chairmanship of concerned SDM, having DSP and ACF its members has also been constituted to conduct raids against illegal mining, he added.