Dera Bassi villagers take on mining mafia

High drama was witnessed near Bhankarpur village here on Saturday night when some local residents of the village stopped tippers loaded with sand and handed over these to the police. However, tipper drivers managed to flee from the spot.

The residents alleged that mining activities suddenly increased manifold in the past few days. All mining operations near the Ghaggar are carried out at night.

They complained that illegal mining was being carried out in their area and tippers and tractor-trailers found using the village link road for transporting the material illegally to be sold out of the city without any check.

The villagers alleged that they had complained to authorities several times, but to no avail. It is assumed by the residents that using vehicles without registration numbers was the modus operandi of the mining mafia.

They alleged that the motive of the mining mafia was to escape check posts without getting the identity of the vehicle owners revealed to the police. There are incidents when these vehicles go unchecked and cops do not take necessary action against the violators.

Residents of the village rued that at the most, drivers of tippers and other machinery were fined in the name of action against the mining mafia while the big fish remained untouched.

Police officials said villagers were called to lodge a complaint on Sunday, but nobody turned up. They registered an FIR on the complaint of the Mining Department after two poclain machines were seized from the spot.

MLA NK Sharma has also been maintaining that illegal mining is rampant in his area despite the issue being taken up at various levels, reflecting the involvement of local officials. He sought immediate action against the guilty persons.