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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Illegal mining hits home, ex-Armymen step in by Apurva

Illegal mining hits home, ex-Armymen step in by Apurva

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published Published on Jul 10, 2011   modified Modified on Jul 10, 2011

In Rajasthan’s Neem ka Thana region, the echoes of mining explosives are like clockwork, on the hour every hour. For some time now, another feature has become almost routine here: houses, left unsteady by the explosions, propped up by wooden poles or bricks.

Tired of no recourse and continued government harassment, villages have begun a movement to stop illegal mining, primarily led by ex-army servicemen.

It began on March 1 this year when Naik Jai Ram Singh, awarded the Vir Chakra in 1999 after the Kargil War and currently posted at the Rajputana Rifles Centre in New Delhi, went back to his native Dabla village. “When I came home on leave, I noticed that several houses had structural damage and were being held up with wooden poles and bricks because of the continuous blasting in illegal mines around the village,” Singh told The Indian Express.

Of the 1,000 odd houses in Dabla village alone, more than 250, including seven Indira Awas Yojana houses for BPL families, are now structurally unsound.

Singh dashed off a letter to the SDM and district collector and returned to duty in Delhi, even as residents of Dabla began preparing for a movement against illegal mining in the region. Since then, the residents of Dabla have stopped at least five trucks supplying explosives to these illegal mines, before contacting the police.

However, says Kailash Meena, instead of taking action, the police have gone after them, registering cases of dacoity.

According to Meena, the police have registered FIRs against almost everybody involved in the movement under false charges. “They have even registered a case against Jai Ram Singh and 60 others charging them with cutting an 11 Kv electric line on April 21, when he was actually on duty in Delhi,” Meena said. He claims at least 10 different FIRs against those protesting against illegal mining, and says many of them have been beaten up in jail and tortured.

Late on Saturday night, Gokul Chand Sharma, the SHO of Patan police station in Sikar, under whose jurisdiction Dabla falls, was transferred pending a departmental enquiry. Sikar Superintendent of Police (SP) Gaurav Srivastava told The Indian Express that Sharma was transferred to Jaipur on orders from the police headquarters in Jaipur.

Capt (retd) Kishen Singh was arrested in May 4 and spent seven days in jail, during which he was allegedly beaten. “We were on the 29th day of the protest and all talks with the government and district administration had failed so the police resorted to violence. They claimed we had pelted stones at them and began a lathicharge, injuring several of us,” Singh said.

The sit-in that residents of Dabla began on April 4 against illegal mining continues till date.

“Since April the police have treated the residents of Dabla brutally. Though FIRs have been registered against the police, action has been taken only against the protesters so far,” Rajasthan PUCL general secretary Kavita Srivastava claims.

The Indian Express, 11 July, 2011, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/illegal-mining-hits-home-exarmymen-step-in/815719/


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