The Nainital District Magistrate and chairman of the mining committee, Deependra Kumar Chaudhari visited the Gaula river mining area at Gaulapar, Indranagar and nearby to check the facilities here on Wednesday. He said that a petition had been filed in the high court of Uttarakhand regarding the weighing scale for Gaula river quarrying activity with the hearing slated to be held on November 15.
Chaudhari said that the quarrying business is also linked to the livelihood of the poor, apart from which the mining activity is also a major source of revenue for the state. Regarding the petition filed in the high court, the district magistrate said that the previous date in the case was on October 24. On that date the high court had ordered that if needed, the Uttarakhand forest development corporation can get the mining work facilitated through some other party not involved in the court case. In this regard, the Uttarakhand forest development corporation is seeking legal counsel from its advocate. On this issue, the district magistrate also had telephonic conversations with the managing director of the Uttarakhand forest development corporation and the principal secretary of forests. Chaudhari said that according to the 2005 government order issued by the industrial development department, the royalty should be collected on the minor minerals after weighing the same. The members of the Gaula Nadi Dumper Association have also submitted a memorandum to the district magistrate seeking that quarrying activities be conducted according to the government order. It was stated that the forest department had completed the work of installing 28 weighing scales at the 11 gates in the Gaula river mining area. The orders of the Uttarakhand forest development corporation managing director are awaited and the mining work will be resumed as soon as the said order is received. The district magistrate also held a meeting at his camp office to review mining works and issued necessary instructions to officials concerned. He said that according to the report and recommendation of the deputy director of the geological and mining unit, Haldwani and the sub divisional magistrate concerned, applicants were accorded conditional permission for leveling of the ground for agricultural work. The area and depth have been specified for the permitted leveling work. It had been noticed that some of those who had secured the permission had excavated more than the permitted dimensions which amounts to misuse of the permission. The officials concerned are taking necessary action in such cases. A committee headed by the additional district magistrate (finance and revenue) has been formed for physical verification of the permission granted for leveling works. The Uttarakhand forest development corporation regional manager MPS Rawat, city magistrate Pankaj Upadhyay, Gaula sub divisional officer Dhruv Martoliya the mining deputy director Rajpal legha among others were also present during the district magistrate’s inspection.