Mining mafias rule the roost in Khordha

Flouting rules openly, as many as 19 leaseholders of stone quarries have been allegedly involved in excess mining beyond lease conditions in the Khordha district. They reportedly didn’t even spare mines and hills registered in the name of Lord Jagannath and allegedly siphoned of crores of rupees of Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA).

Many hills in Khordha belong to Lord Jagannath and SJTA gets revenue by giving those hills on lease. However, it has been alleged that the leaseholders have been involved in excess mining and they have looted crores of rupees without giving the proper revenue amount to SJTA. Apart from that, the mining mafias have also looted hills, stone quarries and murram quarries of the Revenue Department as well. However, the administration has allegedly turned a blind eye towards the loot.

As many as 20 out of 40 stone quarries in Khordha have been given on lease. Though 20 stone quarries have not been given on lease, black muguni stones, laterite stones and murram are allegedly being extracted from those. As a result, the Odisha government is incurring huge revenue loss amounting to crores of rupees.

Though the mining mafias are openly flouting the lease conditions, no actions were allegedly being taken against them by the administration.

However, of late, the temple administration and the Revenue Department have started taking legal steps against the leaseholders who are flouting the lease conditions.

As per reports, the Khordha district administration and SJTA have lodged complaints against five leaseholders for excess mining and flouting lease conditions.

 “We have lodged FIRs against five quarry owners as we have found excess mining from our inquiry. All the rules pertaining to lease conditions will be strictly implemented in the coming days,” said Khordha Sub-Collector Dipti Ranjan Sethi.

“When the public is paying taxes on time, why the administration will lose revenue from the leaseholders?” asked Sobhan Ghose, a local resident.