Making amends

Mining in Kumbh Mela area has been banned:

P.S. Chauhan

The state government has issued a notification banning all sorts of quarrying and mining from the Ganga riverbed in the entire Kumbh Mela area, which spreads in parts of Haridwar, Dehradun, Tehri and Pauri districts of the state.

Swami Shivanand, the founder of the Matri Sadan, undertook a fast unto death, demanding ban on quarrying and mining in the holy river and also the closure of all the stone crushers which were using the boulders, stones and pebbles excavated from the river. The Swami got support from many leading environmentalists and the sants who said that digging up stones and other sub minerals not only polluted the holy river but also posed a threat to the ecology of the region. After 24 days of the fast by the Swamiji, the state government issued a notification to ban mining from the Ganga in the Kumbh Mela area.

After receiving the government order, the district magistrate, Dr. R. Meenakshi Sundaram instructed the officials to implement the order and also ordered for the closure of all the stone crushers in the Kumbh area. Among others, the Himalayan Stone Crusher, one of the biggest stone crushers in the state, has also been sealed.

It may be mentioned here that Swami Shivanand and his followers have undertaken fast about 40 times since the last decade of the last century, demanding ban on quarrying in the Ganga and also for the shifting of all the stone crushers from the Kumbh Mela area. It is due to his unrelenting crusade that about 20 stone crushers in the district have so far been closed. The state government banned mining in the Ganga in the Kumbh mela area three times in the past. However, obviously under the pressure of the mining lobby, mining and quarrying again started every time. During the last Kumbh also, after 163 day fast of the sants of Matri Sadan, mining was banned by the state government. But the proprietors of the stone crushers went to the state High Court. Swami Shivanand alleges that the state government did not take interest in the petition and, therefore, the Nainital High Court allowed the petition of the stone crushers. After the government order this time, the administration has started cracking the whip on those indulging in mining in the proscribed area. However, the mining mafia is so audacious that they beat up a team of government personnel and snatched their vehicle, when they conducted a raid on a mining site. The administration has filed an F.I.R. against these persons. "We are determined to strictly implement the government order. We are constantly conducting raids on the mining sites. During the last one month alone fine of Rs. 22 lakh has been imposed on those indulging in illegal quarrying. Fine of Rs. 19 lakh has been imposed on one stone crusher alone. Beside this, fine of Rs. 3 lakh has been realised from the owners of the trucks, JCBs etc. engaged in illegal quarrying", says the S.D.M. (city), Harbeer Singh.

It remains to be seen that how long the new government order, banning mining and quarrying in the Ganga, remains effective.