BARA, Jan 7: The authorities in Bara district have started the process of shutting down the power lines of crushers and sand processing centers that have been operating illegally for years without registration and renewal.

The monitoring team under the leadership of Assistant Chief District Officer of Bara Krishna Prasad Acharya has started cutting the power lines in a bid to close down the unregistered crushers and sand processing centers.

Bara’s Assistant Chief District Officer Krishna Prasad Acharya said that action was taken against those crusher plant and sand processing centers that were found not to be registered or could not furnish documents of their license renewal during the on-site monitoring.

During the monitoring on Friday and Saturday, several crusher plants were found operating illegally. Those crusher plants include Jai Mata Di Sand Processing Pvt Ltd in Kalaiya Sub-metropolis 24, Lal Bakiya Sand Processing Pvt Ltd in Nijgadh 9, and Balganga Sand Processing Pvt in Jitpursimra Sub-metropolis 15.

According to the Cottage and Small Industries Association of Bara, there are 52 crusher and sand processing centers operating across the district.

Bara’s Superintendent of Police (SP) Hobindra Bogati said that during the monitoring, some of them were not even registered while the licenses of others were not renewed and those crushers were operating  without conducting  environmental impact assessment.

Bogati said that most of the crushers and sand processing centers operating illegaglly were also evading taxes even though they were exploiting the natural resources.

Most of the crushers and sand processing centers have been operating illegally without registration and verification in Nijgadh Municipality, Kolhavi Municipality, Jitpursimra Sub-metropolitan City and Kalaiya Sub-metropolitan City.

Although the crusher industries that did not meet the standards were renewed to operate only until the end of July 2015, instead of shutting them down, the illegal crusher industries were operating under the protection of Nijgadh municipality for financial gains.

Although there is a rule that this industry must be registered under the Industry Registration Act and should be 2 kilometers away from villages, educational institutions, religious and cultural areas, forests, parks, reserves and security posts and 500 meters away from rivers, riverbanks and highways, most of the industries have not followed this rule.

Dharmendra Lal Karna, head of Cottage and Small Industries Office, Kalaiya, Bara, said that if the crusher industries are still operating without renewal, they are disobeying the laws.

Karna said that the local level had the right to take action against the crusher industries that were operating without renewal.

Even now, crusher industries and sand processing centers such as Nepal Crusher Industry, Lalbakaia Crusher, Himal Crusher, Vaisnavi Stone Industry, Dangal & Brothers Sand Processing Center, Lalbakaia Sand Processing Center are operating illegally, according to the Cottage and Small Industries Office.

While the meeting of the Council of Ministers on January 16, 2015 had set the criteria and conditions for the operation of the crusher industry, the employees of the Cottage and Small Industries Office said that the crusher businessmen have not fulfilled those conditions.

 
• Bara
 
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