Excelsior Correspondent
KATHUA, Nov 16: During routine checking in Ravi river, District Mineral Officer (DMO), Kathua, Rajinder Singh along with mining guards busted a gang involved in illegal mining here, today.
During action, two excavators involved in illegal mining were seized from the spot besides imposing penalty of over Rs 15 lakh on them for illegal digging in the river bed. The huge sum of penalty was calculated from the large number of pits.
The excavated area was also measured by the mineral guards who found over 5200 MT of nallah muck lifted from the spot thereby resulting in massive damage to the river bed with huge environmental and exchequer loss.
District Mineral Officer also called police party when operators of chain machines refused to cooperate and after hard efforts both excavators were driven to police Naka Bedian for seizure and other necessary formalities as per the rules of Geology and Mining Department.
The Deputy Commissioner, Kathua, Dr. Rakesh Minhas has already instructed the Mining Department to act tough against illegal mining activities and impose heavy penalties on the violators and miners who are involved in mineral thefts.
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