Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Minister Kamal Patel has opened a front against his own party’s Government by approaching the central bench of the NGT with complaint of illegal mining.
Patel lodged a complaint against illegal mining in Harda, Hoshangabad, Sehore and Dewas districts to the NGT. Patel said that while on the one hand, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan conducted the Narmada Yatra, on the other hand illegal mining was rampant in the State under the patronage of officers.
The complaint has been made under section 18 (1) read with wection 14, 15 and 17 of the National Green Tribunal Act., seeking cancelation of mining lease of about half a dozen companies and to impose exemplary fine on them, besides to direct them to restore the area damaged due to illegal mining.
Patel said that in these four districts, Narmada was being ‘exploited’. He said that he was eye-witness to pokeland machines digging out sand from the river bed for transportation in dumpers. He said that when he complained about it to the Collector and the SP, instead of taking action, they extended patronage to the illegal miners.
Patel said that as a BJP leader, it was his duty to raise the issue. He said that the issue would cost the BJP heavy in the polls and hence it was necessary to expose the officers now.
Patel, who had lost in the 2013 assembly polls, has been a close associate of Chief Minister Chouhan. A CBI probe was conducted against him and his sons in the murder of Durgesh Jat at Harda. He had to spend some time in jail at that time. He has now been acquitted in the case. His daughter-in-law is the chairperson of the Harda district Panchayat.
Patel has been saying almost the same things about the Narmada Yatra, which the Congress has been saying. His decision to move the NGT has created mild tremors in BJP circles.