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Rising demand of minor minerals due to several ongoing projects in Jammu leading to illegal mining?

Various projects are being undertaken in Jammu which have increased the demand for minor minerals but also led to increased illegal mining. Moreover, delays in grant of vital clearances for making operational new mining blocks have also led to rise in illegal mining in Jammu.

Many projects such as widening of National Highways, Ring Road, Delhi-Katra Expressway, Railway Construction Works, Border Road Organization, PMGSY Road Projects, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and many such projects have given a rise to demand of minor minerals.

But the problem arises when there are difficulties in getting raw materials in time. As per Daily Excelsior, the river bed mining is conducted at irregular intervals in the Ramban, Doda and Kishtwar districts because of non occurrences of the flood plains and limited width of the rivers and streams.
Mostly the sand blocks of limited dimension measuring 1-3 hectares are found and only few of them are economically viable and rest are inaccessible to be exploited while as other ones do not conform to the standard procedures employed and general guidelines and the restrictions imposed in the SRO-105.

As per reports, total mineral potential from the Jammu region has been worked out about 296.33 million tons and about 178.0 million tons—-60% area can be taken for removal of minerals from the streams as per Methodology Adopted for Calculating of Mineral Potential cited in Sustainable Sand Mining Guidelines-2016 issued by Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change.

But, projected requirement of river bed materials for the completion of mega construction projects, the analysis of the data on approved quantity of river bed materials from the present operational blocks is not enough for completion of such projects and meet the additional materials needs.

But, the government mainly the Geology and Mining Department has not evolved any mechanism to overcome the prevailing crisis and ensuring that raw material is made available to the project executing agencies without indulging into illegal mining the government should relax the rules and procedural formalities for making operational additional mining blocks.