Imphal : During the question hour on the Seventh Day of the 3rd Session of the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly held today, Leader of the house and the Chief Minister of Manipur  N. Biren Singh informed the House that the cabinet has resolved to ban mining of Minerals including sand in riverbeds with the help of machines in the state. 

However, manual mining will be streamlined considering the livelihood of the manual labourers. The manual workers can continue their work with prior permissions from Commerce & Industries and Forest Departments. Chief Minister made the statement in reply to the Calling Attention put up by MLA,  Surjakumar Okram on the illegal mining leading to deterioration of Thoubal river.  

Leader of the House  N. Biren Singh stated that we, the human beings, are selfish and some of the people have no civic sense. He said that 99 per cent of the people are not aware of setting up toilets properly. They built toilets near the running river irrespective of whether they are contaminating the water which are consumed by others.

He informed the House that recently the government has done a mass drive of eviction of toilets and cleaning the river banks stretching from Kangpokpi to Imphal river. He also said that Singda Dam is drying up because of the cutting down of trees on the hills around Singda, leading to scarcity of drinking water. 

Biren further informed the House that the government has taken up steps from time to time by arresting the persons involved in illegal mining and quarrying especially at Thoubal river.  For the survival strategy, the people are illegally mining sand and others, neglecting the consequences that affects the future generation. He said that any activities that are disastrous to the environment will be seriously dealt with as per the law of the land 

He informed the House that locations are being identified by Industry Department and Forest Department. Proposals are sent to the Centre for consent to preserve the areas, he added.