BANKE, June 3: The newly-elected people's representatives in Rapti Sonari Rural Municipality in the district of Banke have prioritized their efforts to stop illegal mining from rivers and streams.
The rural municipality has started field visits and monitoring for the same beginning Thursday.
Chairman of Rapti Sonari Rural Municipality Tapta Poudel said all nine ward chairpersons, 17 members of the rural municipal executive, officials, technicians and security officials jointly made onsite visits to different rivers and took stock of the river mining.
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According to Poudel, Rapti Sonari Rural Municipality has already made a decision from the rural municipal executive to regulate mining of stones, sands and pebbles.
After the monitoring, the crusher industries would be interrogated and the source of the purchase of sand, stones, pebbles and others would be examined in the course of monitoring.
Chief Executive Officer of Rapti Sonari Rural Municipality Singha Raj Dangi said most of the crusher industries have been found running illegally.
Some of the industries have been asked to appear before the rural municipality office within seven days along with their documents and deposit amount they owe to the rural municipality.
The municipality has placed restrictions to mine sand, pebbles and stones from various rivers including Kharikhola, Muguwakhola, Tikulipurghat, Sidhaniyaghat, Bagdailaghat, Lalpurghat, Alinagar, Jalalalghat and Paruwakhola.
Officials said that smuggling and illegal mining of river materials is rampant in the district as the municipality failed to open competitive bidding to award the contract for the fiscal year 2021/2022.
