Jajpur: The Director of Inquiry, Lokayukta, has been directed to conduct a probe into the illegal quarrying of black stones from Aruha hill under Dharmasala tehsil in this district, a report said.
The matter came to fore after the chairman of Lokayukta recently passed an order during hearing of a case 1355/2020 on illegal quarrying of black stones from the hill. The Director of Inquiry, Lokayukta, will conduct a probe into the allegation of illegal mining on the hill under Dharmasala tehsil in exercise of the power conferred under Section 20(2) of the Odisha Lokayukta Act, 2014. The matter came up for hearing after a complaint was filed by the plaintiff Sarbeswar Behura.
The Director of Inquiry will conduct a probe and submit the report within 60 days from the date of receipt of this reference. The order has come as a relief for the local residents as they hope that the probe will help in unmasking the accused leaseholder as well as the government officials who connived with the former in looting black stones from the hill.
The order further stated that the state government has lost revenue worth several crores due to the unholy alliance between the district administration, especially the Dharmasala tehsildar and the leaseholder Trinath Jena.
According to the complaint, the leaseholder Jena extracted black stone from the hill beyond the permissible limits of lease area. The district Collector, Dharmasala tehsildar, and Jena have filed their submissions in reply to an earlier order by the Lokayukta where they have denied any irregularities in mining of black stones. However, the reply submitted by the Collector goes to show that the Aruha black stone quarry No-1 was settled in favour of Trinath Jena in 2017-18 on lease for a period of five years.
The reply further reveals that that there is regular enforcement of activities going on the lease area under Dharmasala tehsil and an amount Rs 19,37,020.00 has been collected from royalty and penalty. This apart, 103 vehicles have been seized by the enforcement team so far, the Collector stated. In his reply, the tehsildar stated that several vehicles involved in illegal transportation have been seized. And the law has been set into motion against the wrongdoers.
The complainant has pointed out that though there are over 500 small and big quarries under the Dharmasal tehsil, royalty and penalty collected from them is less than one per cent in comparison to the illegal quarrying carried out on the hill.
PNN