PATIALA: A signature campaign against illegal mining from the Swan and Satluj riverbeds has started in 13 villages of Ropar district’s Anandpur Sahib division after a meeting at the gurudwara of Bhaini village two days ago.
The signatory villages include Thana, Bhaini, Vati Bastiyan, Mawa, Mukari, Gobindpur Bela, Amarpur Bela, Mothapur, Roli, Jhingdi, Khedi, and Saskaur. Their residents have formed an (Against) Illegal Mining Sangharsh Committee (IMSC) that will take a memorandum to the Ropar deputy commissioner and senior superintendent of police on Wednesday.
IMSC general secretary Mohan Singh said: “For 15 year, the government has remained blind to illegal mining in our area, at a bridge on the Garshankar road to Anandpur Sahib, where the Swan and Satluj meet. Before 1988, floods in the Satluj would sever our villages but then the river changed course and we could reach Anandpur Sahib via bridges and roads, but 15 years of mining lowered the land level and deplted the underground water reserves, and now we fear that the Satluj might start flowing our way again if the illegal mining continues. Last month some villagers had spoken against the illegal mining carried out from August 14 to 18, following which police had seized mining vehicles in raids but taken no action or registered an FIR .
BJP national spokesperson Iqbal Singh Lalpura, who also raised the issue of illegal mining on his social media account, said: “We have been raising this issue for the past10 years but the government has no shown the guts to take on the mining mafia and the goonda tax they claim. The underground water level has gone down due to illegal mining.”
