DDC Pulwama for effective  measures to check the illegal extraction of minerals in the District.

Pulwama 5 November 2019: District Developmental Commissioner Pulwama ,Dr Raghav langer  today chaired a multi departmental District Level task Force committee meeting to devise strategy for effective enforce measures to check the menace of illegal extraction of minerals in the District.

During the meeting District Mineral Officer apprised the DDC about the mineral wealth of the District through Power Point Presentation and also raised the issues of installation of high Tech mineral check posts at different places of the district to keep vigil on the transportation of illegally extracted minerals.

The meeting was informed that there are 161 quarries of minor and 9 major mineral quarries in the district among which only 79 quarries are approved by the authorities and 61 are non operational.. It was said that 45 vehicles and an amount of 734983 was seized from the illegal mineral extractors during last four months and cost of mineral at an amount of 593000 for the same period was also recovered.

On the occasion , DDC said that  in view of complaints being received by the administration against illegal Sand, gravel ,soil and other material extraction in the district ,the administration is going to act  tough against the violators.. DDC directed the concerned officers to ensure that no illegal mineral extraction activities are carried out in the district and stressed for zero tolerance and  said that coordinated efforts are required to curb the menace of  illegal extraction of minerals in the district

 He directed District Mineral officer constitute a team of officials for the assessment of particular places where extraction would be allowed .He also directed Agriculture authorities take strict action against the saffron land encroachers and directed the officers to seize the machinery and vehicles which are found being used for illegal extraction of minerals.

The meeting was attended by ADC Awantipora Mohammad Ashraf Hakak ,Distictict Mineral Officer,Executive Engineers of various departments  other Police and Civil officers.