by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Shimla : Illegal mining in Himachal Pradesh has been causing damage to fisheries and aquifer. The state has produced 563 tonnes of fish in this fiscal till January and its production is declining due to four-laning of roads.
The government has admitted this in a written reply during the ongoing budget session of the state Assembly.
Scattered and scanty rainfall is also responsible for the decline in water level in five reservoirs – Gobind Sagar, Pong, Kol, Chamera and Ranjit Sagar – that has hampered the overall production of fish in the past few years.
“The tributaries to the reservoirs are the breeding and feeding grounds of the fish. Scanty rainfall and delay in arrival of monsoon in the past few years resulted in the decline in water level in the reservoirs that impacted their breeding,” Fisheries Minister Virender Kanwar said.
Besides illegal mining in rivers, unscientific dumping of road construction debris in the rivers is also responsible for destroying the fish breeding grounds, he said.
This has caused a decline in fish production in the Gobind Sagar in Bilaspur district also.
The overall fish production in the reservoir was 279.913 tonnes till January 15 in this fiscal, the Minister said in a reply to a question by Congress member Ram Lal Thakur.
The government has stocked 22.152 lakh tonnes fingerlings of the common carp, major carp and silver carp in the reservoirs this fiscal.
The major fish species available in the streams of Himachal Pradesh are trout, mahseer, barilus and glyptothorax.
Fishery, both in the government and private sector, is not only providing livelihood to the fishermen but also helps generate revenue for the state, a spokesperson for the Fishery Department told IANS.
He said schemes and efforts made by the government have increased fish production, besides providing opportunities for self-employment.
Trout, both brown and rainbow, are found in the Beas, Sutlej and Ravi rivers in the higher reaches of the state.
Being a game fish, the brown trout is also an angler’s delight.
To promote trout farming, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur in his budget proposals for the next fiscal announced construction of 100 additional trout farming units.
He also proposed construction of ponds in 10 hectares for production of carp fish and to establish a smoked trout and fillet canning centre in Kullu district in partnership with private sector.
Himachal Pradesh, with its five rivers, numerous streams and reservoirs, has a big potential for fish production, say experts.
Of the 3,000-km network of fisheries’ water resources, 600 km of cold water streams are conducive for trout farming.
The average annual production of a small fish farm is 900 kg, whereas a large farm could produce up to 3,400 kg, says a study by the Shimla-based Himachal Pradesh University’s Agro-Economic Research Centre.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Friday asked what action has been taken against the owner of the illegal coal mine located in East Jaintia Hills district in Meghalaya in which 15 miners are trapped since December 13.
“What you have done against the person who was indulging in illegal mining? What about the officials who were conniving in the illegal mining,” asked Justice A.K. Sikri as senior counsel Anand Grover told the court that a number of agencies, both governmental and private, are offering assistance in rescue operations but there is no coordinating authority to take decisions.
Other judge on the bench is Justice S. Abdul Nazeer.
The court said that it would deal with the aspect of illegal mining later as Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that the entire operation of illegal mining could not have been without connivance of officials.
Grover, appearing for PIL petitioner Aditya N. Prasad, told the court that due to lack of coordination and also some hurdles being faced by the teams engaged in rescue operations and working on the site, the desired results are not there.
He said that the Hyderabad-based National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), Roorkee-based National Institute of Hydrology (NIH) and some other private research institutions including Chennai’s Planys Technology need to be associated in the rescue operations.
The court was also told that the Indian Air Force help is needed to lift heavy equipment to the spot hit by tragedy.
Solicitor General Mehta told the court that despite their best efforts with the high-power pumps of Kirloskars, Coal India Ltd and that of the Meghalaya government pumping out the water, the water level has gone down by just eight inches as more and more water is coming from adjoining Lytein river.
Mehta said all the agencies named by petitioner Prasad have already been contacted by the government and everything possible is being done to augment the rescue operations.
The court was told that the operations is facing difficulty as water in the mine is muddy.
As the Solicitor General projected the difficulties in pumping out the water, the court wondered how the owner of the mine was handling the problem of pumping out the water.
The court listed the matter for January 18 for further hearing.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : The CBI on Saturday searched 14 locations in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, including the residence of a woman IAS officer, a Samajwadi Party leader and a BSP leader, in connection with its investigation into a case of illegal sand mining, with sources saying the role of former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who held the portfolio of mining, will also be probed.
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) spokesperson Abhishek Dayal told reporters that the agency registered a case on January 2 against 11 people, including a few known public servants and unknown public servants and others, under several sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The agency has named the woman IAS officer B. Chandrakala, a former Hamirpur District Magistrate, miner Adil Khan, geologist/mining officer Moinuddin, SP leader Ramesh Kumar Mishra, his brother Dinesh Kumar Mishra, Ram Ashray Prajapati, a former clerk in the mining department in Hamirpur, Sanajy Dikshit, who contested the 2017 Assembly polls on Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket, his father Satyadeo Dikshit, and Ram Avtar Singh, a former clerk in the mining department.
The official said that it conducted searches at 14 locations including one in New Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar area and Kanpur, Lucknow, Hamirpur, Jalon, Hamirpur and Noida (in Uttar Pradesh).
The agency carried out searches at two residential premises of Chandrakala in Lucknow and Noida and at the premises of the SP leader and his brother in Kanpur and his close associate Ambika Tiwari in Hamirpur.
Dayal said the case relates to the illegal sand mining between 2012 and 2016, which it had started investigating on the directions of the Allahabad High Court.
He said the agency was investigating the granting and renewal of the licenses for the mining in the state between 2012-16 and also during the ‘obstruction’ period.
The official said that the CBI team recovered a few documents and seized a bank locker and two bank accounts from the IAS officer.
From the residence of Adil Khan, the agency collected the documents related to mining. “We found that the mining licence to him was provided on the recommendations of the then mining minister Gayatri Prajapati,” he said.
He said the agency recovered Rs 12.5 lakh and 1.8 kg gold from the residence of Moinuddin in Hamirpur and Rs 2 crore and two kg gold from the residence of the retired clerk of the mining department, Ram Avtar Singh, in Jalon.
“Ram Avtar Singh was also holding a mining licence on a different name,” the official said.
The official said that it also carried out searches at the residence of SP leader Ramesh Kumar Mihsra’s wife in Lucknow but she has not been named in the FIR.
A senior agency official said that the agency will also probe the role of the Mining ministers in the state in 2012-16.
Former Chief Minister and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav held the mining ministry portfolio in the state from 2012 to 2013. Gayatri Prajapati succeded Akhilesh Yadav as Mining Minister.
—IANS
