Excelsior Correspondent
KATHUA, Sept 19: Protesting against the double standards of District Mining Officer, Kathua in allowing the supply of building material from Ravi river, the tractor trolley operators of Kathua held a strong protest this evening and blocked the Kerrian road, and Bhagthali road and stopped the movement of Punjab based heavy trallas loaded with building material.
The tractor trolley operators working as supplying the building material like sand and stone from Ravi river based stone crushers led by Ex president Municipal Council (MC) Kathua Naresh Sharma and Devender Singh held strong protest against DMO Kathua when Punjab based tipper and heavy trallas were loaded with building material were allowed to move freely to Punjab and on the other side Kathua based tractor loaded with material seized and fined.
Naresh Sharma said that instead of imposing fine on crusher who is not issuing A Form to J&K based tractors, the DMO was harassing the local people. Kathua police also seized four vehicles including tractors loaded with material without A Form.
He alleged the local people were not issued the A Form by DMO but same has been given to Punjab tippers to move freely reason better known to DMO. He alleged that no transparency is adopted by DMO Office and instead to give priority to local people to continue their construction works, the Punjab and Haryana based tippers were allowed to move freely. He alleged that a high level nexus is operating to give benefits to other states building material suppliers.
The protestors appealed to LG, Manoj Sinha and Deputy Commissioner, Kathua, Rahul Pandey to initiate high level enquiry into the matter and allow the local people to get building material without any hurdle.
The Tractor and Trolleys Union is regularly protesting against the double standards of District Mining Officer Kathua and no solution was made in favour of them. They were not allowed to work under a strategic plan and policy. The crusher owners of Ravi river were issuing the A Form to them when online A form service has been launched by Geology and Mining Department in Kathua and Samba districts in recent past said Devender Singh . The J&K construction works are suffering for want of material ,on the other hand material is transported to Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and UP.
The Kathua police is not allowing any vehicles loaded with material without A form to move on the road. During past one month more than two dozens of tippers, JCBs, tractor trolleys were seized by police in different locations of Kathua district to put a tight vigil on illegal mining. The Geology and Mining Department has no transparent policy for local peoples to get building material from stone crushers.
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