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Dadri villagers to boycott polls over ‘illegal’ mining
The residents on Friday met Charkhi Dadri deputy commissioner Rahul Narwal and appraised him about the situation
Up in arms over the alleged illegal mining in the village, the residents of Ramalwas village in Charkhi Dadri district have declared an electoral boycott. Besides staying away from voting, the residents will also not allow candidates to canvass in their village until the issue is addressed.
The residents on Friday met Charkhi Dadri deputy commissioner Rahul Narwal and appraised him about the situation.
The villagers, including elderly and women, have been sitting on indefinite protest on the village outskirts while accusing a mining company of exceeding its permitted limit of 180 feet to excavate the stones. This village falls under Badhra assembly constituency from where Congress’s Sombir Sheoran is pitted against BJP’s Umed Pathuwas and Independent Sombir Ghasola.
Village sarpanch Vinod Kumar said that the mining company has been excavating stones up to 300 feet and due to this more than 20 tubewells have stopped functioning.
“Our area already comes under a dark zone and many tubewells have dried. This has also resulted in contamination of water. People are suffering from skin diseases. We met district administration officials several times over this issue but they ignored us because of collusion with the mining company. We have decided not to allow any candidate to enter our village for canvassing and we will boycott the voting,” he added.
Everyday, hundreds of people, including women, sit on dharna here from 10 am to 6 pm.
Sunita Devi, a local resident, said that they are dependent on agriculture and if the ground water dries, how their upcoming generations will survive.
“When we asked the mining contractors to not exceed the excavation limit, they threatened people. The government has failed to address our issue and we have no hope from any party. Several persons, including some politicians, and officials have nexus and they are depleting the resources. The mining contractor is working to gain profit by flouting the norms. The villagers had written to the National green tribunal (NGT) but no action was taken,” she added.
Charkhi Dadri deputy commissioner Rahul Narwal said that a five-member committee, including two villagers, have been formed to look into the matter.
“It’s a technical matter and the team will visit the site to ascertain the facts,” the DC added.
