Garhshankar, September 19: Nearly 150 tractor-trailer operators of Garhshankar villages in Hoshiarpur district, who are engaged in sand-lifting along the Himachal Pradesh border, today said a mafia had come up in the area about 15 days back and was coercing them into purchasing costly sand from an illegal dumping site at Kot village here.
Villagers said while they were procuring sand for Rs800 to Rs1,000 per trailer from Himachal Pradesh, those managing the dumping site were asking them to lift sand for Rs3,000 per trailer. They alleged Punjab Police officials, who had laid a naka beyond the dumping site, were not allowing them to reach the mining area and forcing them to return and purchase sand from the dump instead.
“If at all we manage to bring sand from the other side, the policemen make every attempt to harass us. We even show them the slips of the HP Government which we bring along to prove our genuineness but they do not spare us,” Ashok Kumar, a tractor-trailer operator, said alleging connivance of the police with the mafia.
Jagdeep Singh, another operator, said: “Since there is a complete ban on mining till September 30, we have no other means of livelihood but to purchase sand from HP and sell it at a profit of Rs500 to Rs600 per trailer per day after hard labour. The cost price at which we are being forced to lift sand from the dump is so high that we cannot sell it. So we are in a complete fix. The dump has been started about 15 days ago and we approached Congress leader Nimisha Mehta on the issue to help us.”
Mehta said since the matter had come to her knowledge, she would ensure that the operators were not harassed and able to cross the naka daily without any harassment. “Since the land here is covered under the Forest Act, no such illegal use of site for dump can be allowed. If need be, I will even approach Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on the matter as he has already directed us to ensure zero tolerance on ‘gundagardi’ over mining business,” she said.
Hoshiarpur SSP J Elanchezhian said, “I am not aware of any such dump at the village. We have routine nakas in border areas to check liquor smuggling and other crimes. I will surely check any such complaint.”
News Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com
