The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has called in Income Tax officials following the alleged recovery of a huge amount of cash from the office of a prominent businessman in an illegal mining case. Officials remained tight-lipped and shared no details with the media. The agency called off the raids this morning.The mining mafia has been operating without mandatory environmental clearance in the area, posing grave risk to environment and public health. A public hearing involving stakeholders is mandatory before mining approval is granted. This approval is granted by the Union Government’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change for large projects and by the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) for smaller ones. Unauthorised extraction has continued for years, with officials allegedly turning a blind eye. An official said with several rivers and rivulets flowing in from neighbouring Himachal Pradesh, many unemployed residents entered the mining trade due to low investment and high returns.“The massive financial returns and high demand for sand, stone and gravel meant that even lower-middle-class people entered the trade in large numbers in Pathankot district,” he said.Orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and the National Green Tribunal were flouted with impunity. With the ED stepping up action, several businessmen have left the city. Prominent politicians from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir are also under the scanner. The ED has begun probing a 2023 Punjab Vigilance Bureau case related to the fraudulent transfer of around 92 acres of panchayat land near the International Border to private individuals, facilitating large-scale illegal sand mining.