Minister of State for PHE, Irrigation & Flood Control, Power Development, Industries & Commerce Syed Farooq Ahmad Andrabi today, replying to a question of Vibodh Gupta, informed the House that the Government has taken various steps to check illegal mining and excavation. Syed Andrabi said the officials are deployed in each district to keep strict vigil ensuring that no person is allowed to undertake illegal mining operation in respect of any minor mineral. He said penalties are imposed to restrict the illegal mining causing ecological imbalance.The Minister said no minor mineral concession is granted on the land which is under Agriculture or Horticulture production or Kacharai, Shamlat, Forest, protected areas and eco-sensitive zones.
He said that penalty of Rs 3.16 lakh was recovered in 2015-16 and Rs 3.02 lakh were collected till date this year in Jammu province, while in Kashmir province, Rs 15.98 lakh were recovered as penalty in 2015-16 and Rs 3.63 lakh till date this year.Andrabi further informed that the 20 crushers are operational in Rajouri and use raw material from nearby Nallas and Khuds after obtaining permits from the Department of Geology and Mining. He said Pollution Control Board regulates the stone crushing activities with pollution control devices as per its mandate under Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution Act, 1974) and Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution Act 1981) and Environment Protection Act, 1986.Ajat Shatru, GN Monga, Surinder Chaudhary and Sham Lal Bhagat raised supplementaries to the main question.