35 stone crushers sealed near Ganga in Haridwar after high court order
The matter came to light when Haridwar-based Matri Sadan, an ashram involved in environmental protection, approached the Nainital high court in 2017 regarding stone crushers operating within five kilometres of the Ganga river, from Raiwala to Bhogpur, raising concerns of rampant quarrying threatening the sustainability of the river.
Although the Uttarakhand govt permitted the crushers to operate based on the law department's legal counsel, Matri Sadan contested this decision as "unlawful and unconstitutional" and filed another petition in the high court, which ultimately mandated the sealing of all 48 stone crushing units.
They also alleged that the mining lobby could attack its seers and the govt should provide Matri Sadan security, which had been lifted earlier.
District mining officer Kazim Raza told TOI, "We sealed 35 stone crushers on Friday and disconnected their electricity connections. We had closed their online portal earlier so they're unable to issue challans. The rest of the stone crushers will be sealed on Saturday."
Brahmchari Sudhanand, a seer of Matri Sadan involved in the litigation, said, "All stone crushers lying within five kilometres of the Ganga and other rivers in the district should be closed, as they are the root cause of illegal mining in the rivers. We will put this demand before the court at the next hearing."
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