Excelsior Correspondent
RAMGARH, Oct 24: Apni Party Provincial president for Jammu and former Minister Manjit Singh has accused mining mafia of illegal extracting natural resources that has resulted in the depletion of ground water level and damage to the road infrastructure due to the constant movement of huge dumpers 24/7 on village roads.
He was addressing a meeting in village Chak Salaria in Ramgarh. The meeting was organized by the District president Legal Cell, Samba, Sahil Bharti.
During the meeting, the participants raised the issue of how the mining contractors with the alleged help of the officials in the administration facilitated the looting of the natural resources especially Basantar River and Devak River.
The loot of the natural resources continues under the nose of the administration yet no action against the contractors is taken by the authorities because they are hand in glove with the contractors (mining).
“It’s because of unscientific and illegal mining continues on the riverbeds of both Basantar and Devak Rivers, the ground water level has dropped and the hand pumps have dried in many villages alongside these rivers,” he said.
He said that the villages have raised these issues many times, yet the authorities are unable to address their concern.
“The administration should hand over the mining contracts to the Panchayats in their respective villages so that natural resources can be extracted to a limited level without harming the ground water level and other resources,” he said.
He also demanded that damaged village roads due to plying of dumpers over night should be repaired, and action should be taken against the mining contractors operating illegally and extracting material beyond the defined limits and harassing the villagers.
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