Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Apr 23: Expressing serious concern over the administration’s casual approach and unabated extraction of minerals near wild life sanctuaries, CPI (M) State Secretary, Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami has urged the Government to take concrete measures in light of the latest CAG report on mining in protected areas of Jammu and Kashmir.
In a Statement, Tarigami said the administration should have desisted from granting innumerable mining leases that speak volumes about its insensitivity towards protecting the fragile ecology of the State, and urged the Government to implement recommendations of House Committee on Environment in letter and spirit.
“Not only the Supreme Court’s directions prohibiting mining in protected areas have been violated in clear cut terms but the administration has shown utter disregard for the import of recommendations put forth by the House Committee of State Legislative Assembly in this regard,” he said.
Tarigami said, it is disheartening to know from the latest CAG report the Department of Geology and Mining did not adhere to the directions of Supreme Court and granted mining lease for extraction of gypsum within and in vicinity of Kazinag National Park and Limber-Lachipura Wildlife Sanctuary despite reservations raised by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, and Commissioner and Secretary to the State Government Forests Department. “One wonders how No Objection Certificates are issued by the different departments to the lessees who get the gypsum extraction contracts without abiding by the norms and fulfilling the criterion,” he said.
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