‘Illegal’ mining taking place in Swabi

SWABI: Illegal mining has been taking place for the last few months, but the district Mineral Department officials are least bothered to take action against the influential people who were involved in it, sources said.

The sources said that the contractor, who had secured the lease, had failed to pay the amount to the government that cancelled the agreement and now no-one had the contract for mining and district administration was expected to announce another lease.

The people in the Saleem Khan Khwar area said that the contractor regularly takes sand and gravel from there without any fear.

The excavator and tractor-trolley are taking sand and gravel from the Saleem Khan area and the men of the contractor remain at the side charging the people as per previous practices, said Qamar Zaman from the area.

Similarly, the people were taking away sand and gravel illegally from Maneri and other areas and were paying the influential people.

It was learnt that those officials, who were supposed to prevent the illegal mining, took their share and they were acting like silent spectators, causing huge loss to the provincial exchequer and people of the district.

When conducted, a high-ranking official of the district Mineral Department said that he would visit the site to see the situation and will take action, adding that nobody was allowed to take sand and gravel from any area across the district.

However, in the same breath he said that they were not having enough staff to monitor illegal mining across the district and whenever they received complaints from the people they had taken action.

When contacted, Swabi Deputy Commissioner Furqan Ashraf said that he would look into the matter and order action against those who were involved in illegal mining.