Jajpur/Chandikhole: A special task force during a raid Tuesday sealed 12 stone crusher units located between Aruha and Bhadanga along the national highway under Dharmasala block in Jajpur district Tuesday.
The move comes after two persons died and another suffered critical injuries while working at a black stone quarry on Jabara hill April 23. Six persons have died in the last eight months in various stone quarries under Dharmasala block.
The task force also dug out the roads leading to the crusher units in a bid to stop all communication to the units and also snapped their power supply, Jajpur sub-collector Narayan Dhal, who was heading the task force, said.
While five of the units were running on electricity, the remaining were being operated by power generators installed by the crusher unit owners, Central Electricity Supply Utility (CESU) executive engineer Debasish Jena, who was a part of the raiding party, said.
The raids will continue and more crusher units near Aruha along the highway will be sealed Wednesday, regional officer of Orissa State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) Anup Kumar Mallick said.
However, many people are of the view that despite the raids, the crusher owners will soon win over the administrative and police officials and manage to reopen their units.
They claimed that such raids are mere eyewash and hardly deter the stone mafia which carries out the illegal activity with impunity.
Reports said despite a ban by the Orissa High Court illegal crusher units and stone quarries have mushroomed alongside the highway during the last 20 years.
The task force constituted by district collector Ranjan Kumar Das will also look into the safety measures adopted in the quarries leased out by the administration and will ensure that only authorised quarries operate and that too after adopting all safety measures.
Dharmasala tehsildar Prabhas Behura said the raid was carried out on the direction of the district collector as the crusher units were blatantly violating government norms.
Among others, Jajpur Road sub-divisional police officer Jugal Kishore Das, IIC Amitabh Mohapatra of Dharmasala police station, mines officer Anup Kumar Behura and forester Rabindra Mohanty participated in the raid. PNN
