Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Faridkot
After about two-week of “low-intensity and dispirited” campaigning, SAD’s Faridkot candidate Gulzar Singh Ranike today sought to add some pace to his canvassing on Saturday by conducting a “raid” at an alleged illegal sand mining site here.
Accompanied by local party leaders, Ranike reached Doad village, 15 km from here, without informing the district administration or the police. As the “politically connected” contractors were using submersible pumps to extract sand, it has left the surface open to ecological disaster, causing huge loss of groundwater, he alleged.
After collecting and selling the surface sand, permissible up to a depth of 3 metre, measured from the un-mined ground level, the contractors in Doad were using specially designed submersible pumps to suck up and extract sand mixed with water from the sand-rich deep layers of the earth, he alleged.
In a complaint to Kumar Saurav Raj, District Electorate Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner, Ranike demanded legal action against those indulging in illegal mining and their “political masters”. One JCB machine and seven tractor-trailers were involved in illegal mining, claimed Ranike.
“After receiving the complaint, I have asked the district police and the mining department officials to visit the site, inquire the matter and take appropriate legal action,” said Kumar Saurav Raj.
