RAUTAHAT, Dec 12: It has been seen that the exploitation of natural resources has gone out of control as the authority to conduct the Initial Environmental Examination (IEE), tender, monitoring and even taking action belongs to local bodies.

Rahul Gravel Sand Washing Center and Royal Stone, Gravel and Sand Processing Center are in operation on the banks of Budhi Bagmati River located in Barhathwa Municipality-8, Tandi of Sarlahi. Similarly, gravel and sand has been extracted from the Bagmati River in Bhainsasurghat of Sarlahi's Basbaria Rural Municipality. Five illegal mobile crushers are operating in Bhainsasur.

Kalpana Katuwal, mayor of the Barhathwa Municipality, said that the municipality has not conducted preliminary environmental testing for the extraction of river materials, so the contract should not be awarded. However, the owners of both the crusher plants operating in Tandi, Barhathwa-8, said that the crusher plants are operating in accordance with the law.

Raja Singh, director of Royal Stone, Gravel and Sand Processing Center located on the banks of the Budhi Bagmati River said that the crusher plant is operating in accordance with the law.

Even though the municipality did not conduct the IEE and as per the regulations, the crusher plant is not allowed to operate near settlements, riverbanks, schools and subsidiary roads, but Singh's processing centers continue to operate without any obstruction.

Similarly, Rahul Gravel Sand Washing Center has also been found to exploit the river illegally. The director of the washing center, Rambali Mahato, said that his crusher plant is registered and he brings gravel from Rajghat in Bagmati for processing.

Likewise, it has been found that hundreds of bighas of land of Barahathawa-8 Tandi, Puraniya and Hirapur areas are being encroached upon by illegal mining. While digging 40 to 50 feet into the surface of the ground, the river material is found, however, the smugglers have been extracting it as if they were just mud.

People are seen digging up the agricultural land near the Bagmati River, Basabaria Rural Municipality-1 to a depth of fifty to sixty feet and illegally operating a mobile crusher to extract stones, sand and gravel.  As it is a place where the Bagmati River flowed 50 years ago, there are large quantities of stones and boulders under the ground. Taking advantage of that, more than half a dozen mobile crusher plants have dug large chunks of cultivable land and turned them into ponds.

Meanwhile, Rural Municipality Chairman Ram Sinhan Rai Yadav has awarded the contract of extracting sand to his nephew Mukesh Kumar Yadav. Without even conducting the IEE, Yadav has awarded the contract to his nephew’s Tulsi Construction Service, based on the IEE done by the then District Development Committee, Malangwa, Sarlahi.

At present, 100 to 150 tractors are illegally mining gravel, sand, gravel and stones daily from the crusher plants operating illegally in different places of Sarlahi. Though the local bodies are responsible for monitoring, they are not able to do anything while mining, processing and sales of river materials are being carried out haphazardly. When arrests are made to control illegal mining, extraction, processing and sales distribution, after receiving complaints, there is an obligation for the Chief District Officer (CDO) and the District Police Office to submit them to the local bodies for action.

The river mafias are safe as the reach of the crusher operators is from the municipality to the district coordination committee and the local administration cannot take any actionable steps.

“Earlier in the law, when there was a district monitoring committee under the leadership of the chief district officer, the river and river products of the district were monitored and when the committee included the district development committee, district land protection committee, district police office, treasury and accounting control office, it was easy to control the exploitation of river products,” said Advocate Bhagya Narayan Jha.

According to Advocate Jha, there is a need to change the current law to protect the fertile land, rivers, and forests of Madhesh. The civil society also claimed that the local administration has no choice but to act a mute spectator even when there is illegal mining taking place right in front of their eyes.

Civil society leader Tej Narayan Jha said that the exploitation of natural resources has increased as the CDO remains silent on the issue. According to Jha, there are illegal crusher plants operating in dozens of rivers in Sarlahi and illegal exploitation of river products continues.

Meanwhile, Chief District Officer of Sarlahi, Thaneshwar Gautam, said that the police will be mobilized immediately as soon as the information is received about the place where illegal mining is taking place.

 
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