Illegal Miners In Porbandar Asked To Pay Rs. 171 Crore: High Court

Porbandar district authorities on Monday told the Gujarat High Court they have ordered recovery of around Rs. 171 crore from illegal limestone miners.Porbandar District Collector Dinesh Patel submitted an affidavit in the High Court on Monday in this regard.

The affidavit was submitted following Justice Anant S Dave's order asking the Collector to provide details regarding the recovery orders and the action taken thereupon. The court will take up the affidavit for consideration today.

In the affidavit, the Collector said that orders were passed against illegal limestone miners operating in Porbandar district who made unauthorised extraction to the tune of Rs. 171 crore.

The affidavit said the orders were issued in October and November 2016, but no follow up action has been taken so far. "The delay in passing the orders was on account of as many as five collectors having been transferred during the period from the year 2012," it said.

Talking to reporters later, petitioner Dilipsinh Chauhan's lawyer Babu Mangukiya claimed that the recovery orders issued by the district administration were also linked to the firms owned by relatives of BJP leader and Agriculture Minister Babu Bokhiria.

However, the district collector said Minister Babu Bokhiria or his son were not recipients of any of the recovery notices sent for illegal mining in Porbandar.

The case first came to light when the then collector of Porbandar, H M Chhibber, in 2006 raised the issue of estimated illegal mining to the tune of Rs. 240 crore and sought a team of 40 experts and two SRP companies to help find out the exact amount of illegal mining in the district.

Subsequent collectors made similar pleas, but no action was taken, according to a PIL filed in 2014 by Mr Chauhan, who sought action against illegal miners, some of whom he alleged were related to minister Bokhiria, also one of the respondents.

In the past, the district collector had passed order imposing fine of Rs. 240 crore after which around 31 miners had moved the Centre in 2009 for stay under provisions of Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957. In 2012, the Centre had referred the case back to the state government, saying that the case has to be heard afresh, after which a PIL was moved in the high court.