Villagers who have repeatedly complained to the authorities about illegal stone quarrying have had their pleas ignored.
A conglomeration of two committees – Budugre Village Environment Protection Committee and Chokpot Area Vigilance Committee – said that illegal quarrying of stones at Chokpot near the Dareng River has been going on unabated.
Though the Nokma of the area did not grant any permit or no-objection certificate (NOC) for the quarrying, the activity has carried on regardless, the committees said in a press release.
The people of Budugre and adjoining villages are stridently opposed to quarrying because the site lies next to the Dareng, which is a source of drinking water for the residents of nearly 30 villages downstream and the people depend on it for other purposes as well.
Besides the Nokma not having given her permission, no consultation or public meeting was ever had with the villagers, they stated.
When police personnel came to the spot for verification after receiving repeated complaints, they were informed that the villagers would never have given their consent to the quarrying but, still, no concrete action was taken by the authorities to put a stop to such activity.
A letter of complaint was also shot off to the Forest and Environment Department, Deputy Commissioner of South Garo Hills, Chokpot Sub-Divisional Officer, Chokpot police station and Garo Hills Autonomous District Council.
These complaints go back to at least 2021, when the quarrying was paused. However, at the start of this year the respite ended and kicked off again in “full swing”, which has prompted the villagers to file new complaints.
