Activist against illegal mining gets govt notice from state govt

Times of India: Rajkot: Saturday, October 11, 2014.

A whistleblower and Right To Information (RTI) activist has been slapped with a notice for alleged illegal mining by the state government's geology and mines department.

Bhikha Gohil, sarpanch of Gohil-ni-Khan village in Kodinar taluka of Gir Somnath district along with the village's talati-cum-mantra have been served a show-cause notice accusing them of digging up a gauchar land near the village's primary school and a lake owned by the irrigation department.

They have been asked to either explain their conduct or pay a fine of Rs 21,780 that has been estimated against the illegal mining. "We have received complaints about illegal mining by you for constructing Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) in the village and you have illegally mined about 330 metric tonne sand from Gauchar land and lake without any permission," the notice read.

Gohil has been fighting against illegal mining for the last one decade and has used RTI to expose corruption in various government departments. It was his RTI query that unearthed how the irrigation department under the pressure of the powerful cement factory allowed a private road right through a village pond. This fact was reluctantly admitted by the state government in the assembly in 2009 and the company had to pay Rs 51.63 lakh to the government.

"I have filed petitions in Gujarat high court over illegal mining in my village. The show-cause notice is given with malicious intention. We did not do any illegal mining and even if we had done it, the panchayat rules say that we do not need to pay any royalty as the mining has been used for a public purpose," Gohil said.

He said that illegal mining is rampant across the coastal belt in connivance with local politicians and anyone objecting to it faces harassment from all corners including the government.

"It is evident from the fact that when I demanded the documents on the basis of which the geology and mines department served the show-cause notice to me, they refused," he said.