NELLORE: Illegal transportation of quartz is rampant in the district, causing a loss to the government in the form of royalty. Normally, traders have to pay royalty to the government based on the quality of quartz availed in the permitted mining region. Traders have to pay Rs 130 to Rs 300 per tonne of quartz based on the quality. While protecting natural resources like quartz, felspar etc., evasion of royalty of Rs 11 crore has been detected by the Vigilance and Enforcement department during the financial year 2017-18.
“Traders maintain hoodlums to transport raw rocks from the nearby lands without obtaining permission from the owners. They threaten the land owners that if they resist to shift the rocks from their lands they would complain to officials,” said a senior official from the Mining department.
The district has abundant resources of quartz in Atmakur, Sarvepalli and Venkatagiri constituencies. Normally, farmers who have been cultivating their lands, would hand over large chunks of quartz to traders. With this, traders have been shifting them to mining-permitted areas and segregating them based on quality. Traders have also been shifting the rocks from non-permitted mining region illegally to another during night time. They have been allegedly exporting quartz to other parts of the country with same bills managing some officials in the departments concerned.
Price of quality quartz ranges from Rs 4,000 to Rs 7,000 in the open market and low-grade quartz also ranges from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,500. Traders would pay Rs 700 for labour in mining areas for one tonne of quartz. “Some of the traders will search for quartz in the nearby fields and shift them to mining areas without obtaining permission from land owners. They will park vehicles near the area and shift the mined rocks during night. Sometimes, land owners are not worried abut shifting of rocks as they are free to cultivate the land without rocks,” said a farmer from Chejarla mandal.