Govt to frame policy supporting local residents’ manual mining: MLA Rajpora

Pulwama, Dec 10: Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Rajpora constituency, Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Mir on Tuesday said the Jammu and Kashmir government is working on a policy to grant permission for manual mining to local residents.
Speaking to Rising Kashmir during a visit to Nallah Romeshi near Karimabad village in Pulwama, Mir said that residents living along water bodies have the right to mine manually.
“They have been earning their livelihood through manual mining for years and should be allowed to continue,” he said, adding that the government is actively framing a policy to support this initiative.
The MLA revealed that discussions on illegal mining and granting manual mining rights to locals would take place in the upcoming session of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly. “Local residents deserve the right to conduct manual mining operations,” he said while opposing the use of heavy machinery like excavators.
According to Mir, manual mining causes minimal harm to water bodies, unlike mechanised operations that have severely damaged streams such as Romeshi. “Any mining that involves digging riverbeds deeper than one meter is illegal,” he said, raising concerns about deep trenches in various water bodies across Pulwama.
The MLA reiterated the government’s commitment to investigating and curbing illegal mining operations that have caused significant damage. He expressed dissatisfaction over the excavation of soil from Karewas in Newa, alleging that soil intended for government projects was being diverted by a “soil mafia” for commercial sale.
The legislator acknowledged that efforts to curb illegal mining have yielded results in recent weeks. “Illegal mining operations have been checked to a significant extent during the past couple of weeks,” he said.