Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 22: In a petition filed by stone crushers of Jammu division challenging the controversial SRO-105 dated March 31, 2016 by which the Govt had planned to give lease of huge mining blocks of several hectares in one go, High Court has ordered that auction process so initiated shall not be carried out.
The petition was filed by Upkar Stone Crusher, Swastik Stone Crusher, Shubam Stone Crusher, Prime Stone Crusher, Mahavir Enterprises and New B N Stone Crusher.
During the course of hearing, Advocate Vikram Sharma appearing for the petitioners submitted that the respondents have ignored an important fact that a contractor paying enormous amount for lease of a huge block would, in order to recover back such amount, charge the petitioners’ units for each excavation of the raw material from his block in addition to the royalty to be paid to the respondents.
“This would un-disputably raise the cost of end-product manifolds. It is estimated that a vehicle of crushed-stone earlier costing Rs 3500 to an end-user/common man would under present system be costing Rs 10000 to Rs 12000 per vehicle”, he said, adding “respondents cannot only concentrate on the financial interests of the mighty contractor at the cost of the lakhs of common people looking for a home/shelter for themselves”.
After hearing Advocate Vikram Sharma for the petitioners whereas AAG Ajay Sharma appearing for the State, Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir ordered that auction process so initiated shall not be carried into effect.
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