Stone crusher owners call off protest on assurances
NOC DELAYS Will take up environmental clearance issue with govt, says official
DHANBAD: Agitating stone crusher unit owners on Monday called off their indefinite fast after a senior district official assured them that he would take up the issue of environmental clearance with the state and central authorities.
Dhanbad sub divisional magistrate (SDM) Mahesh Santhalia said the district administration will hold discussions with officials of the regional pollution board and the state mining department so that 150 closed crusher units in the coal belt could be operational.
More than 50 members of the district crusher and mines association sat on an indefinite fast at Randhir Verma chowk near the collectorate protesting against the inordinate delay in issuing no-objection certificates by the state pollution board and the mining department. The fast was withdrawn after the SDM’s assurance.
“The J hark hand State Pollution Control Board and the mining department have been sitting on our applications for NOCs since 2009,” said association secretary Manav Pathak.
“Officials give NOC only to those who pay them a hefty sum. More than 150 crushing units in the coal belt have closed due to the lack of NOCs.”
Apart from the crusher owners, more than 2 lakh workers and their dependents have been severely hit and are barely man- aging to survive, he said.
Association members said that they were compelled to resort to an indefinite fast as the deputy commissioner had failed to address their problem.
“We have sent a memorandum to the chief minister and the prime minister’s office in Delhi, seeking the Prime Minister’s intervention so that the crusher industry could sur- vive in Jharkhand,” association president Bhagirath Munshi.
Agitating association members said they will wait for a week for the SDM’s assurance after which they will “re-launch” their agitation.
Officials at the regional pollution control board in Dhanbad said that since the crusher owners have not fulfilled environmental norms, NOCs have not been