To counter the increasing incidents of illegal mining for sand and gravel and their smuggling to Punjab and Haryana, the hill state is gearing up to check it by strengthening the hands of the Mining Department. As a first step against the mining mafia, it has been decided to give the department more manpower and easy mobility through more vehicles. The nod has come from the Cabinet as the issue was discussed threadbare at the yesterday’s meeting chaired by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. Industries Minister Mukesh Agnihotri, who is also in charge of the Mining Department, today told The Tribune that no illegal mining would be allowed henceforth. He said it had been decided by the Cabinet to create 25 posts of mining guard and depute them in four districts sharing the border with Punjab, namely Kangra, Una, Solan and Sirmaur. Besides, he said the four districts would also be provided with new jeeps to ensure greater mobility to check the illegal trade. Punjab and Haryana had imposed a ban on mining of construction material, putting pressure on Himachal Pradesh to supply the construction materials. The lower Shivalik belt of the Himalayas, that falls in Kangra, Una, Solan and Sirmaur districts, has fragile and loose soil structure with high contents of sand and gravel. During the monsoon, while the fine soil particles were drained along with the water to the plains, heavy particles such as sand and gravel settled in the numerous water channels and were prone to illegal mining during most parts of the year when the channels went dry. While the Mining Department allows scientific mining of the construction material for use by local residents, the distance is fixed from the banks of the channel and from the existing bridges for the material to be lifted. There is also a total ban on mechanical lifting of material by excavating machines and tippers. The trade has picked up during the last few years and scores of tippers loaded with construction material were reportedly moving out of the state on a daily basis. The transport, mining and police departments issue almost 3,000 challans every year, realising lakhs of rupees from these tippers, but the trade continues to prosper. Contrary to the claims of the government of having considerably checked the illegal trade, the cost of sand and gravel continues to rise in Himachal. One hundred cubic feet of sand, which was sold at Rs 800 a year ago, now cost Rs 2,000, while the cost of gravel had increased threefold during the same period, said Suresh Kumar, a government contractor from Una.