After nearly six years of legal proceedings, the Punjab Water Resources Department has dismissed an appeal filed by a former contractor of the Swara Quarry in Ropar against an assessment of Rs 154.77 crore for alleged illegal mining.A copy of the order, accessed by The Tribune, has paved the way for the state government to intensify recovery proceedings in the Rs 630-crore illegal mining case in Ropar district.The Superintending Engineer (SE), Drainage-cum-Mining and Geology Circle, Ropar, acting as the appellate authority, has upheld the assessment of Rs 154.77 crore imposed on contractor Manpreet Singh. The authority also rejected his application seeking exemption from the mandatory pre-deposit of the assessed amount and his plea for a stay on recovery proceedings.The decision is significant as it removes another major legal hurdle in the long-pending illegal mining case, in which the National Green Tribunal (NGT), in July 2020, had directed the recovery of approximately Rs 630 crore as environmental compensation from 92 stone crusher owners, mining contractors and nearly 1,200 landowners found responsible for illegal mining in the district.The Swara mining block had been allotted to Manpreet Singh through an e-auction for five years beginning in 2016-17. According to the appellate order, the Site Appraisal Committee (SAC) detected large-scale illegal mining in May 2018 and estimated unauthorised extraction at approximately 91.40 lakh metric tonnes of sand and gravel.The matter had reached the NGT through a petition filed by local advocate and RTI activist Dinesh Chadha, who is now the Aam Aadmi Party MLA from Ropar. The tribunal took cognisance of widespread illegal mining in villages, including Swara, Baihara and Harsa Bela.Investigations during the proceedings revealed that riverbeds had been excavated to depths of nearly 40 feet, against the permissible limit of 10 feet.In its July 2020 order, the NGT directed the state government to recover environmental compensation from those responsible for illegal extraction. However, recovery has remained slow, with several affected parties approaching the Punjab and Haryana High Court and challenging the assessment proceedings.In the present appeal, Manpreet Singh questioned the reliability of the SAC report, the methodology used to calculate illegal extraction and the applicability of mining rules to contractors. He also relied on a subsequent Technical Committee report and argued that the estimated extraction had not been scientifically established.Rejecting these arguments, the appellate authority observed that the SAC findings were corroborated by Google satellite imagery, field inspection records, a joint committee report constituted by the NGT in January 2019, and records of the Revenue, Irrigation and Mining Departments.Meanwhile, Superintendent Engineer of the Water Resources Department Raman Bains, who is dealing with recovery cases, said that objections filed by most of the erring stone crusher owners had been rejected after due consideration.“A majority of objections have been disposed of, and the department is now in a position to move forward with coercive action,” he said.Sources indicated that the department was preparing to initiate stricter recovery measures, including the possible attachment and auction of properties belonging to defaulters who had failed to deposit the compensation.Chadha, who spearheaded the legal battle against illegal mining and is now the Ropar MLA, said he had been regularly pursuing the recovery of the compensation imposed by the NGT.Sources allege that the quarry in question has stakes linked to a Congress leader from the Ropar area. With illegal mining emerging as a key issue in Ropar district ahead of the Assembly elections, the case could be used as political ammunition in the coming months.