Four days after Pathankot district authorities dismissed a complaint to the state Election Commission against alleged illegal mining in the area as “not true”, JCBs and trucks were seen working on the banks of Ravi allegedly to extract raw material for processing at crushers in the area. The road from village Kirian Khurad in Boha assembly constituency of Pathankot towards bed of Ravi river was lined with heavy trucks meant to feed the crushers — 15 in the area — that produce sand and concrete. Near the river bank, ponds, 15 to 30 ft deep, indicated the alleged illegal mining activity. A JCB machine was even spotted extracting material from under flowing river water. It is almost a similar scene on the kaccha road along the bank of Ravi from Madhopur village. Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Polling schedule, results date, constituency-wise election results, how to check live counting On April 18, RTI activist and Independent candidate from Gurdaspur parliamentary constituency, Sukrit Sharada, had filed a complaint to CEO, Punjab against this activity and sought action. The complaint was forwarded to DC, Pathankot for necessary action. “Compliant was not found to be true,” Pathankot DC Ramvir told The Indian Express. There are no legal mines functional in Pathankot for almost last one year. However, according to Gagandeep, mining officer Pathankot, there are total 220 crushers in Pathankot and 120 of them are fully functional. In his complaint, Sharada had also sought removal of the mining officer alleging his involvement in letting illegal mining continue in the area. “Illegal mining is not a poll issue in Pathankot. Why candidates like Sunny Deol and Sunil Jakhar are not making it an issue? Why are they silent on it ?,” asks Sharada. While Gangandeep claims that the crushers get their raw material from J&K, and there is no operational mining site, Sharda counters, “It is not viable to first bring material from J&K and then process it here. How can you stop illegal mining, when you allow crushers to run at sights where mining is ban. It is true that some raw material is brought from the J&K but that is only to make the running of crushers legal on papers.” About crushers running along the river bed, DC Ramvir said: “According to my knowledge, these units file returns. If they are filing wrong returns then action can be taken. It is very simple as that..They must be providing some documents to run these crushers. Concerned department will take action if anyone violates rules. These are issues are there always. It shouldn’t be linked to the election. What complainant has said is not true” Interestingly, Gurdaspur DC Vipul Ujawal had on March 27, 2019, helped the district authorities seize 25 trucks from a illegal mining site near Taragarh. “I was moving in my district and spotted suspicious movement of trucks. I found illegal mining going on but later I found that spot happened to be in Pathankot. It was not in my area so I had handed over case to Pathankot officials. I don’t know what happened after that,” Ujawal said about the incident that happened at the time the model code was in place. “Unplanned and unintentional Gurdaspur DC raid is an example that illegal mining is rampant in Paghankot and it is in organised manner on big scale. But after case landed into hands of Pathankot officials, only drivers of vehicles were booked. No big kingpin was arrested,” alleged Sharda.
