Himachal Government on Thursday claimed that stringent measures are bringing fruitful results in checking illegal mining in the State. A spokesperson of the State Government said that the Mining Policy was notified in August, 2013 after an interval of 10 years by making provision for protection of Government property from illegal mining.
As per the provision of the policy, if any loss was occurred to the Government property like bridges and irrigation schemes etc the FIR would be registered against the department concerned. The provision had been made to release letter of intent for sanctioning mining lease so that mining activities could be undertaken in a proper manner.
This had also helped the applicant in getting early forest clearances. So far, letter of intent had been released to as many as 120 applicants. He said that the process had been eased for providing mining lease on private land for bricks and kilns.
The State Government has also constituted the State level forest clearance committee and forest clearances have been given to more than 100 applicants so far.
The State level mining advisory committee has also been constituted for the first time in the State under the chairmanship of Industries Minister, which will give its suggestions from time to time for scientific mining and checking illegal mining.
The spokesman said that in order to check illegal mining the State Government has repealed 43-year-old rules and stringent provisions had been made to check the practice of illegal mining. The provision had been made of two years imprisonment and fine upto `25,000 against the defaulters.
He said the Government earned revenue of `111.08 crore from minerals during 2013-14 which increased to `135 crore during last financial year.
“The effective steps taken by the Government to check illegal mining in the State have shown substantial results. From year 2008-09 to 2012-13, total 16,376 cases of illegal mining were registered and `4.94 crore were realised whereas during past two-and-a-half years of the State Government 16,193 cases were registered and `7.99 crore were recovered as fine besides, 2,394 cases were registered in the courts against the defaulters during this period,” the spokesman added.