Illegal mining in Madhya Pradesh has become an issue of concern for the Kamal Nath Government. A minister in Nath government has come forth raising the issue and former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Wednesday referred his statement taking on the State government.
A couple of days ago, Co-operative Affairs Minister Govind Singh had claimed that despite Congress in power, the illegal mining was going at rapid pace, unhindered. He had apologised to the public for not being able to stop the illegal mining against which he has been fighting for years. Singh as an MLA was quite vocal against illegal quarrying in assembly when the Bharatiya Janata Party was in power. Singh not only acknowledged the illegal mining but also went on to say that 90% police officers and 10% mining officers were involved in illegal mining. “Instead of taking care of the law and order, the police are busy extorting money from the vehicles carrying illegally mined stones and sand,” Singh the MLA from Lahar had said while speaking to the media. He had candidly accepted that despite being in government, he has failed to stop the illegal mining and he accepts his mistake.
Not holding back, the minister had also inked a letter to Chief Minister Kamal Nath accusing Chambal Range IG Police of being hand in glove with the mining. Soon after the police had put up check posts in the region to check illegal mining in the last couple of days. He, however, was attacked by fellow minister (PWD) Sajjan Singh Verma on Wednesday saying if Dr Singh was talking about illegal mining, he should himself stop this in districts like Datia, Bhind and Morena.
Besides Verma, Singh faced opposition at home turf at several Congress leaders in Bhind opposed his allegations on illegal mining. Those opposing Dr Singh’s charges included –party MLA OPS Bhadauria, MLA Ranveer Jatav, former district head Ramesh Dubey and state general secretary Ashok Choudhary.