Eight officials receive notice of appearance for ‘facilitating illegal mining’ in Moga

The show notice, a copy of which is kept at HT, was issued by the chief engineer of the mines and geology department, Harinderpal Singh Bedi. The notice reads: “A show cause notice has been issued for causing ₹9.66 crore loss to the exchequer by cheating the government and facilitating illegal mining after collusion with the mafia.”

The notice was issued to officials of the mines department, who served in the district between October 2022 and September this year. The officials include superintendent engineer Upkaran Pal Singh, executive engineer Ramneek Kaur Uppal and executive engineer Gitesh Upveja, who served between 2020 and 2024 in Moga, which also falls under Ferozepur circle.

While Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) Gursimran Singh Gill, SDO Lovepreet Singh, Junior Engineer Anubhav Sisodia, Junior Engineer Harmanpreet Singh and Junior Engineer Ritesh Singh, who were posted in Moga during of the same period.

The notice further states: “In a private hearing, the government documents were produced before the office. After examination of the documents, it turned out that ₹A loss of 9.66 crores was caused to the state government during your tenure (2022 to present) and it was also found that all the illegal mining activities carried out there were during your tenure .

The notice further states that you (officials) informed the head office that during the flood season in 2023, the equipment was washed away by the waters.

“Head office found your activity suspicious and a flying team was sent to the Ardaman site to check for illegal mining on November 4. The flying squad team informed the office that the site was far from the flood-affected areas. According to the Fly Squad report, there was only 57,000 cubic feet of stock available at the site, but you (managers) informed that there was 7,97,650 cubic feet of material available. Illegal mining activity has been observed on a large scale on lands outside the Ardaman site,” the mines department notice added.

The notice asked the officials to report to the department’s headquarters in Chandigarh on November 20.

It is learned that the officials presented themselves at the head office on Wednesday and submitted their clarifications in writing. The ministry is yet to respond to the call regarding the clarifications given by the officials.

Despite repeated attempts, chief engineer Bedi could not be contacted for comment.