MOHALI:The district administration teams raided illegal mining sites at Sundran and Mukandpur village on Tuesday and seized three Poclain hydraulic claw machines, besides three tipper trucks laden with extracted mud. Police arrested three people from the spot, while three more got away.Two separate cases of theft and illegal mining were registered against five of these people at the Mubarkpur police post and the Derabassi police station. This was a day after the Derabassi police busted an illegal-mining racket, seized nine tractortrailers, and arrested three more people. The diggers at Sundran and Mukandpur were mining for mud without a licence. A police official of Mubarkpur said: “At Sundran, the miners were plundering some fields to gather earth for brick kilns.”During the raid, police impounded two extraction vehicles and arrested a man named Mohinder Kumar. They also booked the owner of the ravaged field and launched a manhunt for the seller of this mud. The Mubarkpur police registered a case against two men under Section 379 (punishment for theft) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 4 (1) (mining without licence or lease) of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act.The second raid was at Mukandpur village, where they seized a Poclain machine and two tipper trucks laden with mud, besides arresting two people—Randhir Singh of Banaur and Ajey Kumar of Hoshiarpur. They charged mining contractor Gurvinder Singh and the field’s owner with theft and illegal mining in a case registered at the Derabassi police station.Failure to choke illegal sand mining has prompted the local administration to identify eight sites where night check posts were required. The spots are Khizrabad, Parol, Majri, Kakrali, Sanoli, Mubarakpur, Nagla, and Chatt villages.The Mining department and block development panchayat officers must prepare monthly reports after carrying out checks and submit those with the deputy commissioner. The Mohali SSP, mining department, and office of the general manager of District Industries Centre have orders to put up night check posts in the marked areas to check the movement of tipper trucks.The special task force constituted by the deputy commissioner (DC) to check illegal mining has failed to bring about any results in several months. Most of the times the task force has returned empty-handed after conducting checks. The DC had also constituted a team of block-level officers to conduct surprise raids On March 8, Capt Amarinder Singh had ordered a vigilance inquiry into the alleged nexus between top officials and the mining mafia in Derabassi area, directing departments to shunt out sub-divisional magistrate, deputy superintendent of police (DSP) and station house officer (SHO) pending investigation.After that, a Punjab vigilance department team inspected illegal mining sites in Zirakpur. A team went to Kakrali and Mubarakpur, where it found that illegal mining had left craters as deep as 30 feet. The earlier craters were only 10-to-15 feet deep.

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