Malik Sumeed
Ganderbal 18 May (KNB): Several employees of Megha Engineering Infrastructure Limited (MEIL) were caught by a team of Irrigation and Food Control Department while extracting sand and boulders illegally from Nallah Sindh in Sonamarg area of central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district.
The Hyderabad based infrastructure firm is the executive agency for the construction of Zojila pass tunnel, which will provide all-year connectivity between the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Talking to news agency Kashmir News Bureau, Exen. Ganderbal said that the team was already deputed in the area and had caught these men while extracting sand and boulders from the Nallah.
“They (Employees of MEIL) need the material but they should have asked permission for it,” adding that if they had applied for the permission, we would have identified them.
“We know that the firm is working on a national project,” he added.
Regarding the permission for extraction from Nallah Sindh, he said that neither had they applied for any and obviously! nor have we given them.
Extracting material like this would only cause them trouble, he emphasized.
Regarding the matter, news agency Kashmir News Bureau contacted a senior official of Megha Engineering Infrastructure Limited, who called it a confusion.
He said that nothing wrong has been done from the firm’s side. “Only a confusion is being created and nothing else,” he emphasized.
He further asserted that the firm has done nothing wrong and the concerned department has already been informed about the matter as well.
Responding to a question about the permission for extraction, He said, “Yeah! We have permission.”
Moreover, an officer of Police Station Sonmarg confirmed to news agency Kashmir News Bureau that an FIR number 04, under section 188, 379, 21 Mining and mineral ACT in this regard has been registered. (KNB)