Excelsior Correspondent
KATHUA, Sept 5: Criticizing the dictatorial attitude of District Mining Officer (DMO) Kathua, the Tipper Union of Jammu, Samba, Kathua and Tractor Union of Kathua held separate protest demonstrations against the DMO Kathua who they alleged was harassing them and has given free hand to Punjab based building material dealers.
The Tipper Union of Jammu, Samba, Kathua led by its president, Narinder Singh held protest demonstration against DMO Kathua in front of his office and raised anti slogans. Narinder Singh said that on the order of District Mining Officer , the tippers were transporting the building materials as sand and stone to various development projects under construction in Jammu province.
But the DMO stopped the loading of material from Ravi river based stone crushers and also stopped the operation of crushers. But on the other hand these stone crushers are selling the thousands tones of materials to Punjab dealers illegally during night hours while violating the norms. He also demanded to regularize the e-Challan system for selling building materials from stone crusher as they were harassed on the name of e-challan system.
He urged the Government to stop illegal practice going on in Ravi river under the nose of DMO Kathua.
The protestors demanded to stop sale of building material to Punjab dealers as number of Government projects are getting affected with the shortage of building in J&K.
Besides, the Tractor Union Kathua also raised strong protest against District Mining Officer, Kathua against the harassment. The Tractor Union leader, Devender Singh said that in this rainy season some tractor operators have collected some material from rivers, but the DMO has slapped fine of thousands of rupees on them. They alleged that the tractors were not given the materials by crushers in Ravi river. They are living hand to mouth and have nothing to earn. But the crushers are selling the material to Punjab based dealers on highest price to earn highest profit with the consent of Mining Department.
They said that there is no check on Mining Department which allowed the choicest stone crushers to run only.
They demanded to stop the transportation of material to Punjab and put a check at Madhopur, Punjab on J&K border. They said numbers of heavy loaded material tippers are coming from Ravi river when Punjab Government has strictly banned the mining. They demanded a high level probe in functioning of mining mafia in Ravi river.
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