Jajpur: The leaseholders of black stone quarry-1 on Barada hill under Dharmasala tehsil of Jajpur district have raked in moolah by resorting to excessive mining for years together. The government coffers had to lose revenue worth crores of rupees. Now, the lessees have devised a new way to hide the excessive mining carried out in the lease area. For the last three days, leaseholders have been filling up parts of the quarry with murram and soil in an attempt to evade the correct measurement by satellite survey.
Videos of the filling went viral on social media. Truckloads of murram and soil are being transported from elsewhere to fill up the pits without permission from the right authorities, sources said. The tehsil had leased out the quarry-1 of the Barada hill for five years with permission to extract 1,764 cubic metre of stone.
However, the leaseholders had mined stone in the lease area far beyond the limit. The quarry is spread over 7 acre. It was roughly assessed that the leaseholders have mined over 1,000 crore cubic metre of stone from the quarry. A huge crater of 100 metre depth has been created with excessive extraction of stones. Last month, My World Consultancy agency had carried out a satellite survey to measure the extent of stone mining. Locals alleged that the leaseholders have started filling up pits in the quarry to tamper with the satellite survey.
As per the Minor Minerals Amendment Act-2016, many stone mines in the area had been leased out for five years. Lease terms for some mines have expired while that of some others is near expiry. It was alleged that in over 20 stone quarries, leaseholders have excessively extracted stone.
On the basis of the allegations, a satellite survey on the stone mining was conducted in July. Four of the leaseholders have been served with demand notices for recovery of `105.87 crore. However, these lessees have poohpoohed the demand notices. My World Consultancy agency had also done satellite survey on many other stone mines since August 27, 2022 on hills at Rahadpur, Barada, Lunibar, Dankari, Anjira and Bajabati.
However, the consultancy agency was not clear about the extent of illegal stone mining in all these mines. It was learnt that satellite measurement of mining at some quarries will be done after expiry of the lease terms. The lease term of Barada hill will expire March 30, 2023.
Only four months have been left for expiry of lease term. It was alleged that to ward off possible penalty to be imposed on them in case excess mining is exposed through the satellite survey, some leaseholders had tried to hide the illegal mining by making a mutual understanding with the consultancy firm. But they have failed to do so. Though the authorities of the Dharmasala tehsil are aware of the matter, but they are allegedly turning a blind eye. Our correspondent had tried to contact tehsildar Swagat Das on phone, but the latter did not answer the call.