Palampur villagers protest illegal mining on their land

Hundreds of villagers today held a protest against illegal mining being carried out in their private land in Jaisinghpur and adjoining areas of Palampur district. They said that the mining mafia was continuing with illegal activities in their private land with impunity.

The protesters said that last night, they seized two JCB machines extracting stones by digging trenches in their land and a truck; they handed over the JCB machines and the truck to the police. They added that hundreds of acres of private land in the area had gone barren because of illegal mining being carried out at night. 

The mafia had not even spared their agricultural land and damaged their standing crops. A number of complaints to the local authorities, police and the Mining Department had not yielded positive results — the villagers are losing their agriculture land to unabated mining.

Later, the protesters called upon local MLA Ravinder Ravi Dhiman and urged him for immediate action against the mining mafia. They said that the mafia had dug deep trenches in their land and a child died after falling into it recently. Besides, several animals had also fallen into the trenches and died.

The MLA directed the police to register cases against the guilty persons and arrest them. He assured the villagers that nobody would be allowed to enter their private land.

Last year, Dhiman had threatened to sit on dharna with the protesting villagers against the mining mafia. Though illegal mining had stopped for a week, the government later allowed mining in the area.