The Pathankot police have arrested two accused under the mining act and seized one tractor-trolley and a JCB Machine at a prohibited site. The arrested accused have been identified as Mukesh Singh of Nagrota and Parveen Kumar of village Halaer, ShahpurKandi, Pathankot. Divulging more details, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Harkamal Preet Singh Khakh said several teams were constituted and tasked to check illegal mining during day and night hours as excavation was completely banned by the government from July 1 to September 31 due to the monsoon season.
Khakh said that acting on a secret information that illegal mining being done at village Nagrota, Shahpurkandi, the SHO Shahpurkandi along with police party mining staff of subdivision Dharkalan raided at village Nagrota and found one tractor-trolley was being loaded with JCB machine at prohibited site. Upon spotting the police party, the accused tried to flee away from spot but after a chase, the cops nabbed two accused and confiscated one tractor trolley and JCB Machines on the spot. In this regard, a case under Section 21(1) Mining Act was registered against the accused at police station Shapur Kandi, Pathankot. He said that directions were issued to nab actual culprits responsible for the illegal mining not just henchmen.
Lauding the team, SSP pointed out that police identified the sites where such excavation was going on and different teams were formed which carried out raided on these places. He said that total 15 FIRs were registered against illegal mining in the past month, 21 accused arrested and total 38 vehicles impounded from the prohibited site. As a result, mining activities have come down substantially in this area. Khakh said that fifteen FIRs in one and half month are the result of the hard work put in by police. The drive will continue till the menace was completely wiped out from district, said SSP.