A long judicial stay on the sand mining has caused an increase in the cases of illegal sand mining and has also increased the rates of sand in the market. The police had registered many cases of illegal sand mining and seized loaded trucks and trolleys. To check the illegal sand mining, the state government and later the High Court had imposed a ban on sand mining over an year ago. However, sometime ago, the High Court had removed the ban, but due to the lack of environmental clearance from the concerned departments, most of the mining sites were lying without auction. During this period, illegal sand mining was encouraged in the Ghaggar river and some other small rivers in this area. On the other hand, customers are bound to purchase sand at higher rates for construction works. Officials of the Mining Department said some big sites were auctioned by the state government sometime ago, which also include chadiala mining site of the Ghaggar area. But some smaller sites, covering the area less than five acres, were not auctioned and hence were closed for mining. The Mining Department officials said the process of environment clearance for the sites less than five acre was being completed at the district level and sites covering the area more than five acre were being cleared by the Central Ministry of Environment. This process of environmental clearance would be completed soon and all mining sites would be opened for mining department, the officials added. Some residents even said that the higher rates of sand had affected the construction work of government and private development projects. Resultantly, these projects could not be completed on time. The Lalru police had registered eight cases of sand mining and seized trucks and trolleys loaded with sand from January to April this year. Along with this the Banur police had registered five cases of illegal mining during this short period. THe Dera Bassi police had also registered 17 cases of illegal sand mining and seized 32 trailers and trucks loaded with sand during this period of four months. Police had arrested four persons on Monday with trolleys loaded with sand.