Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 17: Modification in the blanket ban order on extraction of minerals from River Tawi by High Court of Jammu and Kashmir will provide sigh of relief to thousands of families, who were totally depended on this business/industry.
This was stated by president, Stone Crushers Owners Association, Vikram Randhawa while interacting with media persons here today. He was accompanied by Vijay Sharma, Sunny Gupta, Chain Singh, Vinod Sharma, Varinder Gupta, Parveen Choudhary, Someshwar Sharma and others.
He informed that a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) regarding encroachments on banks of River Tawi was filed in High Court on 17.11.2016 by some persons, who are not associated with this business, of putting a blanket ban on the minor minerals.
“We were fighting from the last six years for our legitimate rights and now we have won the battle. Now the Division Bench of High Court comprising Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Sanjay Dhar modified the order and directed that the relevant authorities of the Government are at liberty to get the minor minerals extracted from River Tawi subject to strict adherence to the Rules of 2016 and the recommendations of the committees”, he added.
“The High Court has saved lives of thousands of people, who were at the verge of the starvation, due to blanket ban on the extraction of the minerals from the river Tawi”, Randhawa said, adding, the blanket ban on extraction of minor minerals from River Tawi was causing great hardships to the public at large as it has led to sky rocketing of costs of minor minerals and its illegal extraction.
In the end, Randhawa demanded e-auction of the mining blocks in the River Tawi while adding that the bidders should be the license holders and not any other.
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