Chandigarh: The district administration of Nawanshahr today swung into action to check illegal mining in the Sutlej riverbed. All mining activity in the riverbed has come to a halt.

AHMEDABAD: Residents of Dedasan and Chailpur villages in Kheralu taluka have taken to the streets, protesting the indiscriminate sand mining along the Sabarmati river. The river's width has increased by almost 50 feet due to the illegal mining activity in the last few months.

The residents have found that the mining activities were illegal and that the village panchayat too was not informed of the mining contract by the state government. Though the villagers had registered police complaints, the illegal activities continued unabated.

Will two ministers be able to check it? ask public With the delay in introducing new sand mining policy in the district, the illegal sand filtering business on the banks of river, lake, streams are thriving day-by-day.

This surely does not require any proof because everyone is well aware of the ongoing sand mining in banks of almost every major river in the district. With the illegal sand mining being carried out unabated, the common man is finding it difficult to get sand at an affordable price to carry out the construction work.

During the season of water regattas a river here has almost dried up. The water level in the Varattar which links the Pampa and the Manimalayar has been going down for the past 25 years. Even during the monsoon there is no water flow in the 9.5-kilometre-long river.

The sand mining has deepened the river bed level at the originating point near Arattupuzha. Instead of a bridge a short bund was constructed there 30 years ago which prevents the natural flow of water. Moreover, encroachments are rampant on either side of the river. On the encroached part of the river people have planted coconut trees and other plants.

PANJIM: In a categorical statement, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar declared that no additional or new forest land would be diverted for mining also indicating that new rules are in the offing for regulating extraction of minor minerals, including sand extraction.

Leaving it to the administrative machinery to work out the logistics, Parrikar said, “the Forest Department will have to work out a policy on how to deal with existing dumps on forest land”.

Union Minister of State for Power K.C. Venugopal has written to the Chief Minister and Industries Minister against putting the policy of carrying out mineral sand-mining with private participation on the website of ‘Emerging Kerala Global Connect,’ an initiative to woo investors to be held in September.

The letter demanded that the issue be avoided from ‘Emerging Kerala’ and the advertisement to this purpose put on the government website also be withdrawn.

Apprehensive that the now-infamous first-come, first-served policy for allocation of natural resources comes with risks, states are now wiser and embracing the safer option of auctions for these allocations.

The newly-elected Akhilesh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh has introduced an e-tendering system for all leases on mining projects. The decision could impact the future of liquor baron-cum-mining czar Ponty Chaddha, who was seen as closely linked to the previous Mayawati government.

People carrying out illegal sand mining in Maharashtra will be booked under the stringent provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), said Mr Prakash Solanke, Minister of

With the technology hurdle no longer in the way, India is readying thorium supplies to fuel its pilot advanced heavy water reactor (AHWR) that is currently in the works.