Ludhiana: Owners elated as brick-kilns excluded from Mining Act

Shivani Bhakoo

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, November 10

Brick-kiln owners in the region are elated as the state government has excluded the kilns from the Mining Act. For the past over a decade, the kiln owners were struggling hard to keep these out of the Act.

Talking to The Tribune, president of the Brick Kiln Association, Punjab, Ramesh Mohi said the state government had given a new lease of life to approximately 2,700 brick-kilns in the state.

“About 10-15 per cent of the kilns got closed due to unnecessary hassles in the past few years,” Mohi said.

“Now when the government has made it clear that there will be no need for environmental clearance, it has come as a huge respite. Though we were paying all royalties, funds and dues to the government on time, still we were not able to do the business smoothly”, he said.

Parveen Jindal, another brick-kiln owner, said they were thankful to the state government for keeping kilns out of the Mining Act.

“Mining Act is for those, who do deep digging. For our kilns, we want sand up to three feet only. But for it, we had to go through many tedious procedures. Getting environment clearance was also a difficult task for us as we had to go through many departments. But thankfully, we are now excluded from the Act,” he said.

There are 2,700 brick-kilns owners of which will be relieved with the decision. The owners said they were hopeful that the kilns closed due to such conditions would now be revived.