Rohtak, Nov. 7 -- Residents of Charkhi Dadri's Gudana village alleged that the mining company is overexploiting the hillock in their village and its mineral resources. They held the district officials of not taking any action despite numerous complaints being filed in the last eight months. The villagers said that they have been running from pillar to post but their grievances are not being heard. Pratap Singh Sangwan, a retired lecturer of Gudana village said that they had submitted several complaints to the administration and even a complaint to Haryana agriculture and farmers' welfare minister Shyam Singh Rana, who heads the district grievances meeting, on September 25 this year and appraised him about the mining company, The Warrier Mining Minerals and Infra Pvt Limited, blatantly exploiting the hillock in their village and its mineral resources. "One side of the hillock is situated in Pichopa Kalan and the other side in our village Gudana," informed Sangwan. "The company has taken Pichopa Kalan village site on lease for ten years and they are allowed to carry out operations on 22.4 hectares of rock area, however, the mining company has illegally carried out mining activities on an area of 4 acres of land on our side of the hillock. The National Green Tribunal had stopped the mining operation on our side in 1993 as our area comes under the protected Aravalli hills," he added. He further said, "They had axed thousands of trees on the Aravalli range. They conducted blasts once a day, due to which our hill area is collapsing on the Pichopa Kalan side and then the mining company stores the rocks in open fields. As per our estimation, the mining firm has been extracting nearly 30,000 metric tonnes of rock per day illegally after a single blast explosion. After the explosion, rocks from our side fall into their area which they have been selling for construction materials," he alleged. A copy of the complaint was also seen by the HT. At the same site, on January 1, Subhash Singh, a resident of Pichopa Kalan, was severely injured in a rockfall caused by illegal quarrying and the incident reflected the dangers of unchecked mining in the Aravallis. Another villager Manoj Kumar said that the previous mining company M/s Pioneer Partners, which had carried out operations from 2017-23 had also carried out illegal mining activities and after his repeated complaints, a team from Haryana department of mines and geology visited the site on January 16, 2023 and found 43,228 metric tonnes of illegally mined rock from Pichopa Kalan. "A fine of Rs.83 lakh was also imposed on the company to compensate the locals but the company failed to do so. We have apprehension that this company will follow the same and our resources will be depleted. Due to excess illegal mining, our ground water table has been receding but the administration has no concern. More than 12 tubewells within a radius of 1 km have dried up. Many houses were damaged due to the blast. We have a large portion of government land where animals used to graze but due to mining, we are not able to take the cattle to the grazing grounds due to blasts happening in the area," he added. Retired Haryana police assistant sub-inspector Bhagat Singh Lamba, another resident of Gudana, said that the agricultural minister Shyam Singh Rana had assured them of ordering a vigilance enquiry into the matter but no action has been taken so far. "We have urged the district administration to inspect the site and give us permission to carry out digital mapping of the area. Even though we are ready to pay an amount for mapping, the administration has turned a deaf ear to our complaints," he added. Former two-time MLA and ex-chief parliamentary secretary Ran Singh Maan said that these unsafe practices are leading to frequent accidents. Charkhi Dadri mining officer Sanchi told HT over phone that she has received complaints from villagers over the mining issue and she has appraised the higher officials of mines and geology department. "We are aware of the issue and it will be resolved shortly. We will inspect and check the claims made by the villagers and mining company," she added....