This story is from February 20, 2020

Rohtas admn plans to blow up 25 hill tracks in Kaimur

Rohtas admn plans to blow up 25 hill tracks in Kaimur
SASARAM: The Rohtas district administration has drawn up a plan to blow up the entry-exit points to Kaimur hills in its bid to check illegal stone quarrying. The explosions will destroy the tracks used by vehicles to ferry the stones.
The move comes after a three-member team led by home department’s additional chief secretary Amir Subhani visited the Kaimur hills forest area on February 1.

The forest department principal secretary, Deepak Kumar Singh, who was also part of the team, admitted to the prevalence of illegal stone quarrying and said steps are being taken to check the menace.
Rohtas mines and geology officer Vikas Kumar confirmed the move and said, “Controlled explosions would be carried out at altogether 25 exits points leading to the quarry area of the hills.”
However, this is not the first time this method was deployed. Two years ago, CM Nitish Kumar had ordered explosions that created trenches as deep as 40ft deep and 20ft wide. But the exercise proved futile as the mining mafia “repaired” the trenches to facilitate the movement of trucks for ferrying illegally mined stone chips. Sources said around 200 trucks laden with stones were seized in the past two years, while more than 400 stone crushers were dismantled by the administration. Also, creation of two police outpost near the approach roads has largely failed to get the desired results.

“All possible steps are being taken to check illegal stone-quarrying in the hills. The private firm, which was assigned the task two years ago, has been hired again to carry out the explosions. There is a proposal to set up one more police out post in the area,” mines officer Kumar said.
Stone quarrying in the area was banned in 2009 after the state government decided not to renew the mining licenses.
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