LAHORE, (Pakistan Point News - APP - 21st Oct, 2016 ) : Provincial government Friday launched a crackdown on the mafia involved in illegal mining throughout the Punjab province. As a part of the drive, five culprits allegedly involved in illegal felling of thousands of trees and illegal excavation of ordinary sand from the land of Niazpur Block of the Reserve Forest near Chuhang Town have been arrested by the police.
Additional Chief Secretary Punjab Shamail Ahmad Khawaja presided over a meeting of special committee here on Friday. The excavation mafia leader Abdullah Tahir, a lease-holder of the Mines & Minerals Department, is also included in the culprits, arrested by the police.
The meeting was told that behind the populous area of the Chuhang Town, there is a reserve jungle under the administrative control of the Punjab Forests Department. The total area of the jungle is 3,000 acres of land which touches the bed of River Ravi.
Out of this forest area, 690-acre area is not afforested while trees of Eucalyptus and Dalbergia (Sheesham) in multiple lakhs of number are planted on 1,900 acres of land. The Mines & Minerals Department had granted two years lease for mining purpose to excavate ordinary sand and mud from the forest area with the result that five acres of land had become a swamp having 35 feet deep stagnant water.
This illegal act was being committed by the contractor with the connivance of the forest guards who have not installed pillars to demarcate the forest area. Shamail Khawaja said on the occasion that illegal felling of more than 35,000 trees and illegal excavation of ordinary sand from the forest area was not tolerable in any case and the Punjab chief minister had taken serious notice of the situation.