Ban on mining: Brick kiln owners warn of price hike

CHANDIGARH: Making your dream house in Punjab is going to be a little more painful than it already is. The rates of bricks, which had spiraled in the past two years, are going to hit the roof as more than 3,000 brick kiln owners, making 18 crore bricks in a day, have shut down their kilns following directions from the central government and the Supreme Court to adhere to environmental clearances.
President of Punjab Brick Kiln Owners Association, Kuldeep Singh Makkar said brick kilns have been closed since May 23. In the past one week of closure, the rates have zoomed ahead. Bricks which were available for nearly Rs 5,000 per 1,000 bricks are now costing nearly Rs 5,500. "The rates are increasing on daily basis and beyond a point there will be no bricks available," said Makkar.
Mining aligned with brick kilns has been banned by the Supreme Court of India and Punjab and Haryana high court. "Courts have made it compulsory to have environment clearance for each brick kiln unit. The ministry of environment and forestry had made a notification in 2006 which it compulsory for these units to have environment clearance for mining more than five hectares of area," he said.
Abiding by the notification, brick kiln industry was operational on mining less than five hectares, which doesn't requires environment clearance. "Excessive mining of sand and stones forces numerous PILs, in which, considering the case of Deepak Kumar vs Haryana, the court made yet another judgment on February 27, 2012, that environment clearance is required even for mining in less than five hectare of land. Following this, all brick kilns are closing down now," he added.
Kuldip Kumar Khanduja, senior vice-president, All India Bricks and Tiles Federation, and chairman, Punjab Brick Kiln Owner Association, said, "Bricks are considered to be a basic element of any construction project, be it in building, housing, road construction or bridges. The government ignored our just demands and therefore ongoing construction projects would have to pay a heavy cost for this attitude of the government."