Bhubaneswar, March 6: The Odisha government today asked the district functionaries to undertake massive enforcement drive to curb all illegal mining and transportation of minor minerals in the state.
Chief Secretary Manoj Ahuja held a video conference with the Collectors and District Magistrates and Superintendents of Police of the State. Amongst other issues deliberated, one of the important topics of deliberation was the cases of illegal mining of minor minerals.
All the district functionaries were told to undertake massive enforcement drive to curb all such illegal mining and transportation. Strict instructions have been issued to conduct raids in the sand and stone quarries, check illegal mining at the source and book cases as per law against the accused, said an official.
Simultaneously, strict action is to be taken against illegal transport of minerals/ transport without E- Transit Pass. Wherever it is established prima facie that a vehicle is involved in illegal transport of mineral, shall be seized forthwith as per law, the official said.
The strategy for enforcement drive shall be decided jointly by Collector & SP. Sub-Divisional Level teams and Tahsil level teams consisting of Revenue, Mining, Police and other officials shall undertake enforcement activities.
Collectors have also been instructed to undertake survey of new sources of sand, black-stone etc. Each district has been advised to identify new sources equalling to 150% of their current sources. District Survey Reports for these new sources shall be prepared by August and the sources are targeted to be auctioned by October this year. The aim is to increase number of sairat sources, which will not only ease the availability of minor minerals, but also make the prices reasonable apart from checking illegal mining.
