Excelsior Correspondent
KATHUA, Mar 2: The residents of Kathua along with tractor trolleys, trucks and tipper owners held protest demonstration in front of Police Station Kathua against the Punjab based sand mafia which is active in Ravi river belt and harassing the locals on the name of collection of royalties of building material from Rs 500 to 2000 from them.
The protestors raised slogans against Mining Department which has allegedly given free hand to some stone crushers to run during mid night and extract the building material from Ravi river illegally. The protestors including the Makhan Lal, Yasin and Raju took serious note of such illegal practice going on in Ravi river despite the Government’s ban of running the stone crushers and mining in the river belt.
They said that the sand mafia equipped with arms, sharp edged weapons, hockey sticks and lathies are active in Ravi belt and any local person visiting to get building material from stone crusher, the sand mafia forcibly collects the royalty up to Rs 2000 on the name of Mining Department and issues a fake receipt after collecting money from them. If anyone refuses to pay they thrash him. The protesters’ displayed the fake receipts and also claimed that they have some video clips of the same depicting the reign of terror let loose by the mafia in the area.
They alleged that all this is done under the nose of Mining Department Kathua. Even they claimed that the Department has also asked the Punjab based stone crushers to extract material from Ujh river and crush it in stone crushers installed in Ravi belt.
The protestors urged the Police to deploy adequate number of force to protect their lives and mineral from Ravi river. They appealed the LG, GC Murmu to take strong action against illegal mining going on to destroy the environment and minerals of UT of J&K.
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