Tribune News Service
Deepkamal Kaur
Jalandhar, October 6
Even as the Department of Mines and Geology, Punjab, has allowed farmers of flood-affected areas to remove sand from fields on their own in a week’s time, farmers of the Lohian block in Shahkot and Baupur Mand areas of Sultanpur Lodhi here said they needed a month or two more to do so as the fields are still damp.
SOPs for farmers
- The respective District Mining Officer (DMO) has to be informed about the removal of sand
- The DMO will ensure that sand is not removed from any government-approved mine
- Even though there is no word on what is to be done with the sand dug up from the fields, officials said the farmers were free to either sell it or put it to personal use
While a notification was issued on Tuesday last allowing the farmers to clear sand by Friday, the deadline was extended today till October 12, department officials said. Farmers said tractors are not pliable in the fields, which are still damp.
Farmers of Baupur Mand said they had barely managed to plug the main breach in Advance Bandh along the Beas only this Monday and there was still a lot of water in their fields.
“All our roads have got completely damaged as the water was stagnant for two months. There is hardly any possibility to take tractors to the fields as of now,” said farm leader Sarwan Singh, a resident of Baupur Jadid village. “If the government does not cooperate with us, we will organise a major protest around Dussehra, on October 23-24,” a farmer said.
Farmers of Lohian also said they needed at least two months to remove sand from their fields. Salwinder Jania, a farmer from the area, said: “The impact of floods has been so immense that trenches as deep as 40 feet have come up. As many as eight motors have been deployed in such trenches for the past few weeks and they are still half-filled with river water. There is no logic in the government expecting us to remove sand in such a short span.”
Gurkirat Kirpal Singh, Secretary, Department of Mines, said: “We have given farmers another week to remove sand. It is beyond our capacity to further extend the deadline as some wrong elements could indulge in illegal sand mining, digging up areas even outside their fields.”
On being asked about the one-month extension demanded by farmers, the official said: “So far we can allow just one week and will see accordingly after that.”
#Illegal Mining