A day after Matri Sadan lodged a complaint in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate against the former Chief Minister Harish Rawat and three senior Government officials, alleging forgery committed by them regarding a Government order issued over mining in the Ganga in Haridwar, the founder of Matri Sadan Swami Shivanand said on Wednesday that the State Government must come down heavily on those hell bent on finishing Ganga, deemed as the lifeline of the State, in the name of mining activities. Notably, the court asked the complainant to record the statement on 19 May.
The three officials named in the complaint are the chief secretary S. Ramaswamy, secretary industrial development Shailesh Bagoili and additional secretary Vinay Shankar Pandey. The complaint was filed by brahmchari Dayanand, a disciple of Matri Sadan. As per the petition, in November 2016, the erstwhile Harish Rawat Government had given an order to resume mining along the stretch from Raiwala to Bhogpur with Rajbhawan denying any such announcement through a government order.
Speaking to The Pioneer on Wednesday at his ashram located in Jagjeetpur, Shivanand said, “There is a nexus between the State Government and these officials and they all wish to finish Ganga together.” The seer also referred to another petition lodged by one Mohammad Salim for stopping mining in Ganga which was allegedly opposed by the Union minister Uma Bharti.
Swami Shivanand also slammed the additional magistrate in CJM court who had asked whether the jurisdiction of the case would be Haridwar or Dehradun. “I wonder over what we can expect from the additional magistrate who seems to have no idea about the jurisdiction of the case. I am afraid that the future of the state is bleak with such officials presiding over the Government machinery of the State,” the seer said.
The seer alleged that around 60 stone crushers have been operating in the district. “If we suppose that ten trucks are used daily to transport the mining materials the number of trucks engaged in such transport would go up to 1, 80,000 in ten months, the period fixed for mining. However, the reality is even worse. As many as 100 trucks are being used daily to transport materials made ready by each stone crusher,” he said.