Odishatv Bureau

Bhubaneswar: Replying to Congress MLA Santosh Singh Saluja, Forest and Environment minister Bijayshree Routray on Tuesday informed the House that of the 1761 stone crusher units running in the state, 1,009 are working without the permission of the department. Similarly, out of total 19 hot mix machines, four have not taken permission from the department.

The government has already served closure notices to 379 units running sans permission, said Routray during question hour of the ongoing Assembly session. Similarly, at least 630 erring units have been served show cause notice, he added.

The minister admitted that lack of infrastructure has posed obstacle in taking actions against such illegal units. However, attempts are being made with the help of police and district administration to take steps against such units, he stated.

Expressing concern over the functioning of illegal units, MLAs including ruling party members Debasis Nayak and Amar Satpathy demanded formation of a special task force comprising officials from Revenue, Industry and Forest department for investigation.
 

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