Daily Times

Swat Deputy Commissioner (DC) Junaid Khan has said the DC office was all set to place tougher regulations to guard the River Swat against illegal excavations.

“The illegal excavation at some place in the Swat River has completely mutilated the beauty of the river,” the Swat DC said, adding that so far illegal excavation had been done to extract gravel and sand out of the river.

The Swat DC said this while presiding over a meeting at his office in Swat. The Swat DC in the meeting vowed to streamline the mining and extraction of gravel, sand and stone through enforcement of an eco-friendly excavation mechanism.

“In the first phase, demarcation will be done to specify mining and excavation spots in the Swat river, and in the second phase, interested parties will be invited for a bidding in an open auction for the excavation and mining in the river,” the DC said, adding that the DC office would take necessary approved steps to inform the interested parties to take part in the open auction.

He said that all the departments on the same page regarding protecting the Swat river beauty and no one would be allowed to take law into hand and carry out illegal excavation.