Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 21: A delegation of Stone Crusher Owners Association (SCOA), led by its president and former MLC, Ch Vikram Randhawa, called on the Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Raghav Langar and raised their voice against the royalty charged by the mining mafia on finished products.
During his interaction with the Divisional Commissioner, Randhawa said that the mining is now in the hands of the people from Punjab who are hell bent to squeeze the blood of the stone crusher unit holders as well as the locals. He said that the tenders which were invited to charge royalty were leased out to contractors to charge royalty on raw material but astonishingly these contractors are charging royalty on finished products and that too at an exorbitant rates using muscle power. He apprised the Divisional Commissioner that this mafia is charging royalty on finished products of stone crushers like bajri, sand, dust etc.
Randhawa further told the Div Com that these contractors are even not providing any receipt to the people from whom they are charging royalty. “They are charging three to four times more on the finished products which is raising the cost of the finished products”, Randhawa told Langar.
He apprised the Divisional Commissioner that following high royalty rates on the finished products, which is totally illegal as per the Mining Act, the rates of the finished products have gone up and the locals are bearing the brunt. He said that these outsiders are looting the sons of the soil using their influence and muscle power.
“The construction cost is all time high and there is dire need to control it to provide a sigh of relief to the stone crusher industry as well as the commoners of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir”, Randhawa said.
He urged upon the Divisional Commissioner to intervene and initiate an inquiry into illegally charged royalty on finished products by this mining mafia.
Divisional Commissioner gave a patient hearing the demands of the SCOA and assured that appropriate steps would be taken to bring the things under control and nobody will be allowed to drain the pockets of the citizens and businessmen of J&K.
Others who were part of the delegation included Subash Sharma, Dev Choudhary, Jangveer Singh, Suresh Gupta, Shashi Pal Sharma and Harbans Lal.
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