Ropar: Punjab water resources department has dismissed a former mining contractor’s appeal against a Rs 154.77-crore penalty for illegal extraction of minor minerals from the Swara block in Rupnagar (Ropar) district and begun recovery proceedings, that could include attachment of his Chandigarh properties.In a speaking order issued on Thursday (Nov 12), the superintendent engineer-cum-appellate authority of the Drainage and Mining Circle, Ropar, upheld a Feb 2024 assessment order. The contractor was directed to pay Rs 154,77,08,680 towards royalty and mineral pricing for illegal excavation of sand and gravel.On Friday, the executive engineer of the Drainage-cum-Mining and Geology Division, Shri Anandpur Sahib, issued a recovery certificate, and asked Ropar deputy commissioner-cum-collector to recover the amount as arrears of land revenue under the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887, and Revenue Recovery Act, 1890. The department sought inter-district proceedings against the contractor’s residential properties in Sector 49-A, Chandigarh. It said no court stay protected him from recovery proceedings.A Site Appraisal Committee report of May 2018 found that about 91.40 lakh metric tonnes of minerals had been illegally extracted from the Swara cluster. Assessment records held the contractor liable for one-third of the volume, or 30,46,670.63 metric tonnes.The demand was calculated at Rs 508 per metric tonne, based on a July 2020 National Green Tribunal order requiring environmental compensation at twice the market value of illegally mined material. The contractor failed to deposit the dues by the March 14-2024 deadline.The proceedings arose from NGT Original Application No. 767/2018, which involved Dinesh Kumar Chadha (currently MLA Ropar) versus State of Punjab. NGT had formed a joint committee comprising Central Pollution Control Board and state authorities to investigate illegal sand mining in Ropar and directed recovery of double-value compensation, blacklisting and recovery through the collector.The Punjab and Haryana high court later directed mining authorities to rehear the contractor and issue a fresh, reasoned assessment order. However, the appellate authority rejected the contractor’s contention that extracting more than 30 lakh metric tonnes over 17 operational months was logistically impossible. It said illegal mining operated around the clock through multiple unsupervised entry and exit points and parallel pits, bypassing official weighment slips.It also rejected claims that adjoining stone crushers and landowners were responsible, ruling that their alleged involvement did not absolve the contractor of liability for his acts or omissions. The authority said a subsequent technical committee was constituted only to assess replenishment for prospective environmental clearance and did not invalidate the Site Appraisal Committee’s findings. It also rejected the contractor’s request for exemption from the mandatory pre-deposit, citing the absence of financial documents proving inability to pay.MLA Chadha claimed he got the FIR registered as the contractor had ‘stolen resources worth hundreds of crores in Nurpur Bedi.
