Ranchi: Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Tuesday directed the officials to stop illegal mining in the state at any cost.
Chairing a review of the mines and geology department he asked the officials to take all possible strict steps to prevent illegal mining and directed the department to check illegal activities at Balu Ghats, mines etc. He said that mines, transport and forest department should work in coordination to stop illegal mining activities.
The Chief Minister said that with coordination of transport department documents and permits of the vehicles operating in mining areas should be checked. He said that those trucks which are caught involved in illegal transportation of minerals on them penalties should be imposed and they should not be parked for a long time at the police stations. He said that cases related to all such trucks which are parked in the police stations should be disposed off in time. He said that it should be made sure that the trucks should not be able to use the same challan again for transportation, further he also directed to increase the number of checkpoints in the mines area.
The Chief Minister asked the officials to prepare a data of illegal stone mining happening in the state and at any cost illegal stone mining be stopped. He asked the officials to develop a mining surveillance service system. He suggested that a new minor mineral policy should be prepared in which ST, SC and Women Groups should be given priority and asked to increase the revenue from legal mining.
Reviewing the work of DMFT he asked all the DCs to send a report over the way in which the funds were being used in mining areas and asked the development commissioner to review the DMFT fund from his own level. Further details related to funds of mineral foundation trust should also be provided. He said that funds of the DMFT should be issued for works in the areas of water, healthcare, education and roads and directed to review the vacant posts and speed up the recruitment process.
Those present on the occasion included Chief Secretary Sukhdeo Singh, Development Commissioner KK Khandelwal and officials of the concerned departments.