E-Paper
Illegal mining right under the nose of admn
The police have registered a case against a contractor for allegedly stealing sand from the city right under the nose of the district administration. A case has been registered against the individual, but fingers are also being pointed at the officials of the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA).
The police have registered a case against a contractor for allegedly stealing sand from the city right under the nose of the district administration. A case has been registered against the individual, but fingers are also being pointed at the officials of the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA).
On Saturday morning, some mediapersons smelt rat in the transportation of the sand from the centre of the city. The matter was brought to the notice of the PUDA authorities and Bathinda police after which a case was registered against contactor Jagjit Singh Walia and others at police station, civil lines, under the Mining Act.
In an official complaint, the PUDA told police that some unauthorised people were digging the sand from the site where government residential accommodations were recently dismantled on the Power House road.
The site is at a walking distance from the mini-secretariat where most of the government offices are situated. However, nobody noticed the theft of sand from the heart of the city, which allegedly continued for more than a month.
The PUDA had given the contract to demolish the old residential quarters and also to dispose the raw material at some other place. However, a partner of the contractor allegedly found a unique way of not only cutting costs of disposing raw material but also to make a profit out of it.
The contactor was allegedly mining sand from the site and selling it in the market and refilling the cavities with the raw material, which was supposed to transported and disposed at some other appropriate space.
It is also surprising that how a contractor can dare to carry out such an illegal activity at such a large scale without the PUDA authorities getting a wind of it? The pits at the site are apparently more than two-week old.
The PUDA officials are tightlipped over the issue and they are distancing themselves from the issue.
"We had given the contract to demolish the quarters to one OSHO company, Kotkapura. We have come to know that accused Jagjit Singh Walia was a partner with OSHO. We do not if he was an official or unofficial partner," said ML Bhardwaj, junior engineer, PUDA.
He added that, "I am not much involved into the matter. The contractor was supposed to give us a clean site. But we found that site was converted into a mining site and lodged a complaint with the police."
When asked if any departmental inquiry was ordered to probe the alleged role of government officials, ADO Naveen Garewal said, "I am not in the loop but I have informed the chief administrator about the whole issue. He is the one to decide on it."
Breeding ground for diseases
Pits created after sand mining by the contractor were filled with water during the recent rains, posing a threat outbreak of dengue, malaria and other water-borne diseases to a large population living adjacent to the site.
It has been also learnt that the water works and sewerage pipes were removed from the site without informing the authorities concerned. This has led to flow of unwanted water at the site.
