Achi news desk-
In the Balud district, about 300 villagers came to the Saloni village assembly demanding to close the sand mine leased by the government. During this time the villagers remained seated in front of the mineral industry. The villagers say that when sand is mined in Khasara No. 491,
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The villagers say that the sand mine in Khasra number 491 has been leased and preparations are being made to operate the mine. They came to stop it. It is a hot summer season and if the sand mine is operated then we will need water.
Couldn’t dig sand after getting it on lease
The sand mine here was leased by the minerals department without the consent of the villagers, the consequences of which fall on the contractor concerned. After taking it on lease, he did not mine sand in the same place. Whenever he prepares to extract sand, they go to the village collector and stop him.
Now the problem is that the mines were given on lease by the government, but due to the disapproval of the villagers, the contractor who leased the sand mine suffered a loss of lakhs of rupees. According to information received from sources, the contractor invested 50,000,000 in this mine, which he was unable to recover.
There is a shortage of water, a suicide warning
The villager said that removing sand does not stop the water there. Today we pump water at 30 meters. If no action is taken in this matter, if the mine is not closed then we will all protest in the rural sand mines.
Not only that, he also warned against committing suicide if necessary. The villager says that we all depend on the river for water removal. The whole village depends on the river. In such a situation, if the government has given the lease, then no information of any kind has been given to us. There is a water crisis everywhere in the scorching heat. If the river is dug, we will be starved of water.
There is no one here to listen
The villager Kidar Deshmukh said that since we arrived here, there is no one to listen to us. After meeting the mineral officer, we were asked to meet the collector and the additional collector but there is neither a collector nor an additional collector here. Here no one is even willing to talk to us representatives of the public.
Still his fault
Minerals officer Meenakshi Sahu, who addressed this whole matter, said that the sand mine in Saloni village is approved by the government. The residents of the village said that the water level there is dropping due to the operation of sand mines. The same situation occurred last year as well. The villagers closed the mine. Also this year the sand mine was not able to operate. We will soon find a solution to this matter.
