Rajasthan govt imposes penalty of Rs 38 crore on charges of illegal mining

Jaipur, Nov 5 (IANS) The Rajasthan Mining Department on Tuesday imposed a penalty of Rs 38 crore on charges of illegal mining in Beawar district, an official said.

He said that the action was taken on the orders of the Beawar District Collector against illegal mining under the joint aegis of administration, police and mineral department under the leadership of the Raipur Sub-Divisional Officer.

The Mineral Department inspected one Karni Kripa Granite firm in the village Amargarh of Chang Tehsil of Raipur area as there were complaints pouring that illegal mining was going outside the lease area.

On calculation, a total of 130110.96 tonnes of illegal mining was reported, the penalty amount of which was 10 times the royalty recoverable.

Accordingly, the Mineral Department imposed a fine of Rs 37.73 crore by collecting 10 times the royalty. In the investigation, the total illegal mining area was found to be 5571 square meters and the illegal encroachment area was 22274 square meters.

The District Collector had earlier received complaints of illegal mining and illegal encroachment by the villagers against the said firm. To investigate and verify the complaints, the District Collector directed the Sub-Divisional Officer Raipur to reach the spot with a joint team and investigate and take action if the complaint is found to be true.

On investigation, it was found that the mining lease ML 39/02 was not marked in the revenue records. The remaining two boundary marks were neither found on the spot nor were they pointed out by the Mineral Department.

The leaseholder was found to be carrying out illegal mining in an area more than the lease area and in the Chak land and encroaching by dumping material. Under this, a fine of about 38 crores was imposed in the action taken by the administration.

--IANS

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