Residents of Khaniara village in Dharamsala lost the right last year to carry out slate mining in Dhauladhar hills after the state government failed to deposit about Rs 1.6 crore as Net Present Value (NPV) for 25 hectares of forest land that was to be diverted for mining purposes with the Compensatory A forestation Monitoring and Planning Authority (CAMPA).

 As per the documents available with The Tribune, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) had given the March 13, 2014, deadline to the state government for the deposition of the NPV with CAMPA, pending which it had threatened to cancel the ad-hoc permission for mining on the land in question.

 Sources here said, “Till date, the state government has not deposited the NPV, but the illegal mining on the land is continuing.”

 District Forest Officials at Dharamsala had written to the Industries Department for the deposition of the NPV with CAMPA. The District Mining Officer, Jyoti Kumar Puri, was not available for comments despite repeated calls on his mobile phone. The General Manager, Industries Department, when contacted, said the matter was to be dealt with by the Mining Department..................Read more

Source web page: The Tribune