In the Saharanpur district of UP, mining mafia sabotaged the womb of rivers by illegal mining. The mining mafias of UP not only made the rivers incision, but the mining mafias of Haryana also infiltrated and damaged the rivers. This caused groans to the environment, rivers and forests. Now the Enforcement Directorate has filed a case against several mining mafias in the district, including two former District Magistrates, indicating that their days are going to be very difficult now.
The rainy rivers originate from the Behat region of Saharanpur, the foothills of the Shivalik ranges. These rainy rivers bring big stones with them, while from Sarsawa to Hathini Kund Barrage large stones and boulders (stony sand) come. They are monitored by the mining mafia. The mafia has always been on the watch for illegal mining in the Nakur and Nanauta belts of Saharanpur district from Hathini Kund Barrage.
It is important to mention here that 80 percent of the mining towards Hathini Kund Barrage comes from UP i.e. Saharanpur district whereas only 20 percent of mining is done in this state from this barrage of Haryana but in this barrage facing Haryana, the boulder is more. For this reason, mining mafia is less on sand and more on boulder. The mining mafia of Haryana comes to Saharanpur district and performs illegal mining. Because of this, there have been incidents of bullets being fired among them.
If sources are to be believed, the white-collar and industrialists of Saharanpur dug rivers for several kilometers under the guise of taking a mining lease. There was no fear of police-administration on them. Because they have a setting with officers.
ED has filed a case on these
Besides the two IAS officers, lease holders Mahmood Ali, Dilshad, Mohammad Inam, Naseem Ahmed, Amit Jain, Vikas Agarwal, Mohammad Wajid, Mukesh Jain, Puneet Jain have been nominated. Mehboob Alam is also named in the case, but Mehboob has died. Most of the accused are residents of Mirzapur police station area of Saharanpur, while Vikas Aggarwal is a resident of Dehradun.
Accused of criminal conspiracy
The ED has written in the case that during their tenure, these district magistrates had renewed 13 mining leases in Saharanpur by criminal conspiracy, ignoring the rules between 2012 and 2015. It did not follow the e-tender process and renewed the manual leases. The government at that time was also questioned. During this period, heavy mining was done. Everyday crores were mined in rivers.
Following are the rules
Mining cannot be allowed 10 kilometers from the boundary of Rajaji Tiger Reserve in Uttarakhand and 500 meters from Yamuna. This strict order is from the Supreme Court. But the mining mafia did illegal mining by breaking rules. There are 500 meters of stone crusher in Barthakoli, Noonayari etc. adjoining Yamuna river. While tremendous illegal mining was done at Naurangpur, Khushalipur, Ganeshpur in Biharigarh.
Rainy rivers keep mafia’s sins hidden
The mining mafia continued to do illegal mining day and night just before the rain. In particular, mining continued from the darkness of night till morning. The Pokeland machine, considered fatal for the JCB and the rivers, was mined and the entire staff was quiet. Rivers bring boulders and sand with them again in the rain and cover the crime of mafia.
Arrest Only Made For The sake of Formalities
The long hand of the mining mafias remained with the administration, police. Whenever there was pressure on the administration-police, some of them grabbed one or two people. But looking at the pictures of the time, the mining mafia dug pits 10 to 15 feet deep in the rivers, which is against the rule.
All these cases that have come up are of the past. The ED has filed a lawsuit. They work in their own way. At present, strict action was taken against whatever illegal mining took place in the area. Continous campaign against illegal mining also kept running. No illegal mining is happening these days.