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DMs told to crack down on illegal sand mining and storage in Uttar Pradesh

An official said ahead of the halt in sand mining next week, contractors have expedited work in major rivers across the state and a large quantity of sand has been dumped across Bundelkhand and eastern Uttar Pradesh

Published on: Jun 25, 2021, 09:01:53 IST
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The Uttar Pradesh geology and mining department has directed district magistrates to carry out geo-tagging of the places where sand has been stored and to install CCTV cameras for a vigil on the activities of contractors to check illegal mining and storage during the monsoon.

Representational image. (HT Archive)
Representational image. (HT Archive)

An official said ahead of the halt in sand mining next week, contractors have expedited work in major rivers across the state and a large quantity of sand has been dumped across Bundelkhand and eastern Uttar Pradesh.

In a letter to the district magistrates, secretary, geology, and mining, Roshan Jacob, said the permission to store sand at the dumpsites was given to ensure that adequate sand was available for construction during the monsoon.

Sand mining would be halted from July 1 to September 30, she said.

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The sand could be stored at the spots approved by the district administrations. The names of the contractors and the rates of the mineral would be displayed on boards along with geo-tagging of the spots.

A second official said illegal sand mining with machines has been detected and cases have been registered against contractors.

  • Rajesh Kumar Singh
    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Rajesh Kumar Singh

    Rajesh Kumar Singh is Assistant Editor, Hindustan Times, at the political bureau in Lucknow. An Alumnus of Ramjas College, Delhi and the University of Delhi, he has covered politics in the Hindi heartland Uttar Pradesh and Bihar for three decades and has written extensively on Dalit and OBC politics. He travelled across Uttar Pradesh to cover the panchayat, assembly and Lok Sabha elections. Along with writing on development issues, governance and public policy has done crime reporting, including Maoist activities in Bihar as well as activities of gangsters in East Uttar Pradesh, Jungle Party gang active on UP- Bihar border, dacoit gangs in Bundelkhand region and Sand Mafia active in various districts of UP. Has done investigations and reporting exposing multi-crore NRHM scam in UP, Nutrition scam, Medicine supply scam, irregularities in the flood management projects, weapon smuggling and human trafficking on Indo- Nepal border. He highlighted the deaths of children due to encephalitis in the districts of East Uttar Pradesh; the central and state government took cognisance of the report to launch schemes to check deaths and improve the facilities in the health centres and hospitals. He also reported on the social issues in East Uttar Pradesh and Bundelkhand- migration, farming crisis, water crisis, plight of the deprived communities- Musahar, Vantongiyas, Sahariya and Kol communities. He covers state government departments. He also travels to write human-interest stories and in-depth stories from the ground in the Bundelkhand, Purvanchal, and Rohilkhand regions of Uttar Pradesh.Read More