सिंहदरबार संवाददाता
Kaski. Machhapuchhre Rural Municipality has banned the extraction, sale and distribution of mineral products from four crusher industries operating within the municipality. The municipality has banned the mining of construction materials after the crusher industry operating within the municipality failed to pay the municipality more than 490 million rupees in revenue for mining construction materials.
The Barah Crusher Industry of Feusar here will have to pay 205.662 million rupees, Gandaki Agrogate 133.970 million rupees, JK Crusher Industry 41.236 million rupees, and Seti Gandaki Crusher Industry 108.184 million rupees.
The industry has repeatedly refused to pay the revenue, but since the mining work has not stopped, the municipality has banned the mining, processing, and sale of any ordinary construction-oriented mineral materials (stone, gravel, sand, soil) from the industry until further notice. The distribution-related work has been stopped, informed the rural municipality vice-chairperson Sita Adhikari.
‘We have stopped the excavation and sale and distribution for the time being by taking a decision from the executive meeting to collect revenue from the crusher industry. We are ready to discuss with the entrepreneurs again, but we will leave the revenue collected,’ said the vice-chairperson.
The crusher industries operating in the rural municipality are operating against standards. Locals say that the crusher industry is exploiting rivers and damaging public property, as well as engaging in illegal excavation.
After the municipality was unable to collect revenue from the crusher entrepreneurs for years, a complaint was also filed with the Pokhara office of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority. The Authority has also written to the municipality several times to collect revenue.
After failing to collect revenue from the businessmen, the rural municipality had written to the provincial government’s Ministry of Economic Affairs some time ago for facilitation. The Ministry of Economic Affairs also wrote to the rural municipality to collect revenue from the crushers as per the law, said Vice Chairman Adhikari.
The crusher businessmen have been saying that they cannot pay the prescribed amount due to the high revenue rate. Bhojraj Poudel, the operator of Gandaki Agrogate, informed that the excavation site was measured and a report was prepared accordingly without the businessmen’s presence. The rural municipality had sought the assistance of the Pokhara Institute of Engineering Studies to measure the quantity excavated from the crusher industry.
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