SHIMLA-16 January, 2025-Several initiatives has been taken by the State Government to check illegal mining activities in the State and the State Government has established check posts at various places to check illegal mining and transportation of minerals. This was stated by Industries Minister Harshwardhan Chauhan while presiding over the meeting to review issues related to mining activities in the state. It was unfortunate that this illegal trade was still persisting as violators were bypassing these check posts through other alternate routes, which required to be plugged.

He directed the officers to take stringent action against those involved in illegal mining quoting that the regions like Nalagarh, Una, Nurpur and Paonta Sahib were more prone to illegal mining.

He said that the demand for raw material required for various developmental works such as construction of road and other domestic needs was increasing constantly, thus it was necessary that scientific and proper exploitation of new resources was done by strict implementation of mining rules.

He directed Mining Officers to monitor the mining sites on regular intervals and said that more permission should be given for lease of mines to avoid illegal mining and to generate revenue.

He said that the mining wing of the Industries department was an enforcement agency to implement the laws related to mining and should be strengthened with adequate manpower, vehicles, etc. He directed officers to send the detailed proposal regarding reforms needed for this purpose.

He directed to expedite the auction of limestone mines in Arki of district Solan, Sunni of district Shimla and Baroh Sindh of district Chamba.

Additional Chief Secretary, Industries R D Nazeem assured the Minister that effective steps would be taken for checking illegal mining besides ensuring systematic and scientific mining.

Director Industries Dr. Yunus said that to curb illegal mining, the department has established an online monitoring cell at Shimla to address the complaints related to illegal mining activities. Landline and Whatsapp numbers have also been shared in public domain to receive the complaints and to take prompt stringent action.

State Geologists Puneet Guleria, Sanjeev Sharma, Anil Rana and Suresh Bhardwaj along with other officers of the department were also present on the occasion.