Prohibitory orders imposed in 3 black granite quarries of Bajabati

Jajpur: Prohibitory orders were imposed at three black granite quarries at Bajabati hillock under Dharmasala tehasil limits in Odisha's Jajpur district to prevent illegal stone quarrying.

The prohibitory orders were clamped yesterday after District Collector Satya Kumar Malik on Tuesday paid a visit to Dankari hill, which is in close vicinity of the same tehasil where illegal quarrying of black granite stone has reporedly been taking place for the last couple of years.

?The administration has promulgated an order under Section 144 of CrPC, prohibiting entry of any person to the Sairat area, carrying out any sort of mining activities like extraction, loading and transportation of materials from the black granite quarries in Bajabati hillock to prevent illegal quarrying,? said Jajpur Sub Collector Maheswar Panigrahi.

He admitted that all three black granite quarries were operating by the lessees without obtaining mandatory environment clearance from the forest department.

Officials said Dharmasala tehasil has leased out three black granite quarries, spread over 29 acres of Bajabati hillock, to two persons of Saroi for stone quarrying.

The lessees were operating all the quarries without obtaining mandatory environment clearance from the forest department and used to plunder the state?s natural resources, causing serious damage to the environment, creating pollution by using deep hole blasting, lowering water level in the peripheral areas, flouting restrictions and causing risk to the locality, he said.

Earlier, district administration also imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC at the hillocks of Dankari, Baghua and Lunibari under Dharmasala tehsil in the district to prevent illegal stone quarrying in the last month. These hillocks are under threat due to rampant stone quarrying by stone smugglers.