Rajasthan government is gearing up to take action against illegal mining and mining mafia in the state. The government is launching a special five-day drive from tomorrow to control illegal activities in the mining sector. It will deploy drone and other modern equipment to check illegal mining.
Illegal mining was the poll plank for BJP, which targeted former mining minister in Congress government Pramod Jain Bhaya for large scale irregularities in mining. The BJP had alleged scam of over Rs 66,000 crore in mining sector majorly due to illegal mining activities.
A special task force has been constituted under the leadership of chief secretary Sudhansh Pant. It will have officials of police, district administration, transport, forest and mines department which will crackdown on mining mafia.
This will be a major challenge for newly appointed mines and petroleum secretary Anandhi to coordinate and execute the drive. Apart from daily monitoring, she will have to give regular directions to teams constituted in various districts.
Highest illegal mining zone in Ajmer
According to sources, the department has identified 705 illegal mining territories across 50 districts. Ajmer has the highest 53 illegal mining zones followed by 51 in Bhilwara, 40 in Baran, 39 each in Jalore and Udaipur, 37 in Bundi, 36 in Jodhpur, 30 in Jhalawar, 28 each in Rajsamand and Nagaur and 27 in Banswara.
The task force will ensure that only legal mining was carried out for the bajri, on which the Supreme Court had directed a scientific replenishment study, followed by the clearance of the Ministry of Environment and Forest. Environmental clearance was issued to as many as 60 mining areas in the state's riverbeds in February 2022 following the top court's direction.
There had been a large number of complaints of illegal mining of bajri and mafias charging exorbitant prices. Rajasthan government will crackdown on these mafias and bring correction in the bajri prices.
The BuckStopper, run by a group of seasoned journalists, holds the powerful accountable. The buck stops with them, as they cannot shrug off their official responsibilities.
