Jhumpura: Days after Orissa Post published a report about illegal murram mining by a private construction company in forests of Malda panchayat under Jhumpura block in Keonjhar district, the administration woke up to the illegality and has asked the contractor to pay Rs 7 lakh (including a fine amount). The report was published in Orissa Post December 16.
The contractor is carrying out a road construction from Jagdala to Kasia. He had illegally excavated thousands of truckloads of murram from Khesera and DLC forests near Balabhadrapur, Kasia, Kaliapal and Kendubani villages, by using machines and dumpers.
Huge craters have been created in the forests due to the murram quarrying, which pose danger to domestic and wild animals.
A large number of sal trees were felled to make space for quarrying, locals alleged. The villagers had drawn the attention of the forest and the Jhumpura tehsil officials towards the unauthorised mining.
Following the report, tehsildar Janak Nayak and Malda revenue inspector Anita Mohant along with other tehsil officials started an investigation and assessed the mineral loss at Rs 7 lakh. This amount also included a penalty amount.
The officials have asked the contractor to pay the sum within seven days. They warned of action against the contractor if he fails to make the payment.
On the other hand, the forest department has probed the matter, but has not yet served a notice on the contractor. The department is learnt to have imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on the contractor.
Bamebari forester Jatindra Sahu said the investigation report has been sent to the ranger’s office at Champua.
Tehsildar Janak Nayak said only a day is left for the deadline to pay the penalty. PNN