Too late for the Rescue!

After scooting for nearly three years, the District Administration, Jammu finally notified the maximum rates for minor minerals – Sand, Bajri, Gravels, etc to charged henceforth within Jammu district.

True to its character of waking up late, the government remained a mute spectator to hue and cries for black marketing of these basic construction materials that only nature can provide.

The rates for each trolley of Sand, Bajri, and Gravels were shot up eight to ten times and the material became so scarce that people have to shelve their plans of constructing houses and needed repairs or renovations. A very large number of developmental and government construction works got stuck up for want of these materials used mostly in civil work.

After a blanket ban ordered by the Jammu Kashmir High Court on mining of minor minerals in River Tawi within the stretch of Bajalta to Flayan Mandaal, the main river basin within the easy reach of the town, the full-time regular minerals extraction got halted resulting in huge scarcity to meet the construction boom. Taking the advantage of the situation at full scale, the mining mafia with the nexus of Stone-crushers, Geology Mining Officials and Police sprung up and made money bags-full.

While the Geology Mining department failed to approach the High Court with a rational mining policy, based on scientific extraction while addressing the environmental issues and get the ban vacated and rationalizing the things. It instead absolved its active role in checking the illegal mining that continued brazenly from the banned Tawi strip while the Police officials looked the other way. The mining officials are duty-bound to register FIRs against the owners of vehicles involved in illegal mining and leaseholders. In case an FIR is registered, the impounded vehicles and machinery can only be released through court. But such powers were rarely used and for the formality sake, some random tractors trolleys, and Tippers were seized and dumped at police nakas to justify that they are in action.

It is good that besides fixing the rates of these basic minor minerals, the administration has also constituted enforcement committees at Tehsil level to monitor and attend to the complaints of overcharging. The enforcement committees are headed by the respective Tehsildar for the purpose and included the SHO in charge of the concerned Police station, Officials of Forest, Flood Control, and Geology and Mining.

It was only the controversy raised by the BJP’s former Legislator who is also an owner of Stone Crusher accused his own party’s Union Minister of State in PMO of his involvement that brought the cat out of the bag. The public outcry that followed the episode, forced the administration to wake up.

The things thereafter moved on the fast track to settle the dust by extra work-outs. An Enquiry Committee was formed to go into the mess and a series of orders subsequently issued to streamline the chaos. Better such prompt actions would have taken long back before the damage done to the public interest and a dent in Government’s image.