Khaira: In a major crackdown on illegal stone mining, Khaira tehsildar Pradip Kumar Sahu imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 on 10 stone mines at Sarisua hill in Balasore Friday.
The stone mining was being carried out at 10 places at Khata-245 and plot-520.
From now on, police personnel will keep a close watch on these mines, the tehsildar said.
“If the prohibitory orders are violated, action will be taken against the violators,” he said.
However, a few hours after the Section 144 was imposed on mines, some mafia carried out blasts and extracted stones at 89 mines, locals alleged.
A few days ago, this newspaper had carried a report about illegal stone mining in Sarisua hills. A team of officials from the forest department led by sub-collector Nilu Mohapatra September 25 had visited the stone mines and some stone crushing units at the foothill.
The administration realized that quarry owners have been rampantly carrying out stone mining in violation of environmental norms.
Local reporters had got hints that stone mafia in league with unscrupulous revenue officials was carrying out stone extraction.
When asked about alleged violation of Section 144, additional tehsildar Bibhas Ranjan Panigrahi said that the department had not got any complaint in this regard.
Recently, it was reported that murram was illegal being mined from government land near the hill.
Truckloads of murram had been lifted from 97 mines in the area while transporters had not paid any royalty to the government.
Residents at the foothills of Sarisua hills expressed concern over the impact of the illegal quarrying on the environment and warned that the hill, an integral part of the local ecology, faced the risk of being denuded altogether if the district authorities failed to check illegal mining at the earliest.
The hill, sprawling over 62 sq km, has been declared an elephant corridor. The tehsil administration had also shut 109 stone quarries in the area following the declaration.
PNN
