THATTA: The Directo-rate General of Mines & Mineral Development has asked the court, the district’s revenue department and police to take immediate action to help it stop highly destructive practice of lifting stones and boulders from the dykes of Keenjhar Lake and stone-pitched ramparts of Indus Highway.

Amanullah Kathio, assistant director in the directorate, filed complaint in the court of third civil judge and judicial magistrate of Thatta that a gang of land grabbers and stone thieves in connivance with influential persons of the area were excavating limestone, particularly from Chillya and its surroundings, Keenjhar Lake dykes and Indus Highway.

The unabated stone lifting might do colossal damage to the largest freshwater body of the country, which was also a Ramsar site spread over 24 kilometre radius and the only source of water supply to metropolitan Karachi and Thatta, he warned.

They were using earth moving machines openly and with complete impunity to lift the stones from the lake’s dykes which already faced threat of disaster.

He said the destructive practice also threatened the Indus Highway connecting Thatta with Karachi. If the menace was not eliminated it might lead to disaster, he warned.

Kathio said that several complaints had been made to the police stations concerned of Keenjhar and Chattochand but the officers were reluctant to register FIRs against local waderas and influential persons involved in the menace.

Concerned citizens have called upon Sindh chief minister to stop the illegal stone lifting to save the lake as well as the Indus Highway from complete destruction.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2023