Anantnag, May 14: Land mafia here in South Kashmir’s Bijbehara town are busy in disfiguring the state land. The unabated soil extraction in various villages of the town without the permission of concerned departments is going on in broad day light amid the current pandemic. Authorities are in slumber and watching this whole dram from a distance.
Locals told that land mafia is extracting soil illegally from Arwani, Gund Chehal, Moman, Waghama and other villages. “These soil extractors don’t pay any royalty to Geology and Mining Department and they don’t bother to seek permission from the concerned department,” they said.
This arable land will now turn into barren now and it is all happening under the nose of government. “Almost every official visited these spots but failed to curb the illegal action of the land mafia. The mafia resumes their operation once government official leave the spot. No cases are being registered against these vested interest elements,” said Muhammad Abas.
Another local said that mafia is dredging soil from many spots and used it in filling agricultural land in order to raise constructions there which is quite illegal and threat for the environment.
Tehsildar Bijbehara Reyaz Ahmed Shah said that he visited these spots and got the work closed. “Action will be initiated against these people if they extract the soil once again,” he said.
However, locals refuted this claim saying that soil extraction is still going on unabated in these areas.
Same claims were made by District Mineral Officer Anantnag. He said that illegal soil extraction process has been stopped.
Deputy Commissioner Anantnag Bashir Ahmed Dar said, he will look into the matter.
