District Development Commissioner (DDC) Kupwara, and Chairman of e-Auction Committee for Geology and Mining Anshul Garg today chaired a meeting of concerned engineers to review the status of mining in the district.The meeting was attended by Assistant Commissioner Revenue (ACR), Bashir Ahmad Bhat; Chief Drilling Engineer Geology and Mining Department (G&M) Srinagar, Executive Engineer (Exen) R&B, Exen I&FC Kupwara, AEE I&FC Handwara and others concerned.The meeting held threadbare discussions which include scraping of open auction in respect of 18 Minor Mineral Blocks of the district, demarcation of mining area with pillars and Geo tagging which is to be done prior to the start of mining.Besides, it was also discussed in the meeting that the river bed mining shall not be allowed up to a distance of 1 Km from major bridges, highways on both sides and shall be confined to 3 meter depth from the surface level of Nallah bed.It was informed in the meeting that a controlled price model has been put in place to be regulated by Government at district level to monitor the sale and purchase of sand, bajri and nallahmukh thereby curbing illegal mining activities.On the occasion, the DDC directed for close coordination of the concerned departments to monitor and keep close vigil on the site of mining to avoid any damage caused to the environment or forest.
The DDC also directed the Exen I&FC to submit a detailed report within 2 days regarding the status of all mining blocks in the district to start e-tendering process.