Four days after release of mobile phone number, Illegal Mining Prevention Vigilance Unit (IMPVU) has received around 1,500 anonymous mobile phone calls informing the police about ongoing illegal mining activities from various parts of the State.
Around 600 of total 1,500 phone calls were received from Haridwar district while around 450 phone calls were from Nainital district. Very few phone calls were received from Chamoli, Bageshwar, Pauri, Pithoragarh and other mountainous districts of the State. IMPVU chief executive officer DIG Sanjay Kumar Gunjyal said that he had released mobile phone number 7535975505 four days ago and one can inform the police about ongoing illegal mining activities in their area on this number. Police will keep informer’s name secret and after verifying the registered report, the team will conduct drive against illegal mining activities and reward informers.
According to IMPVU, in the last four days, the police have received around 1,500 phone calls from various parts of the State. Some callers said that throughout the night, large number of trucks/tractors/dumpers loaded with illegally quarried river bed material pass through roads near their home. Due to noise, they do not get sound sleep at night. Some said that vehicles loaded with illegally quarried minerals pass in front of different police stations daily but heads of these police stations do not take action against violators.
It should be mentioned here that following the direction of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, Illegal Mining Prevention Vigilance Unit comprising the DIG, inspector, sub-inspector and constables was established to stop illegal mining activities in the State in December 2013.