Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday prima facie ruled out cancellation of the recent sand mine auctions under pressure from the opposition parties or as a result of media trials.
Categorically ruling out taking any arbitrary action on the issue, Capt Amarinder said he would not succumb to political pressure, nor would he allow his judgement and decisions to be influenced by media trials.
Any decision in the matter would be based on judicious application of the law, and in the interest of justice, he added.
“My information shows that the auctions were conducted with total transparency and fairness, under the supervision of a committee headed by a retired High Court judge and two senior IAS officers,” said the Chief Minister, who had sought detailed inputs from the Department of Mining following media reports that the e-auctions had been compromised to benefit certain individuals.
Based on the information received, Capt Amarinder maintained that there was, prima facie, no substance in the allegations raised by certain quarters of unfair and discriminatory dealings in the entire mining auction process.
As far as the charges against Irrigation and Power Minister Rana Gurjit Singh were concerned, the Government was awaiting the report of the Judicial Commission set up to probe the same, the Chief Minister reiterated, underlining the need for a fair legal investigation into the matter, in the interest of justice.
Unless categorically proved to the contrary, there was no reason to believe any ambiguity or lack of transparency in the process of auction of 102 mines through progressive bidding process on the e-auction platform by ITI limited, an Indian Government PSU which is already time-tested and is being successfully used by other States, the Chief Minister said.
Since it was a web-based system, the identity of bidders participating in the e-auctions, conducted on May 19 and 20, was not known to other bidders to prevent any cartelisation, or use of pressure of any kind to prevent bidding by other bidders. What is more, any complaint received from bidders regarding any technical issues faced during e-auction was dealt with promptly by the helpdesk provided by ITI limited, an official spokesperson cited inputs received by the Chief Minister from the Department of Mining.
Spokesperson, giving further details of the entire auction process, said the reserve price was fixed while considering the royalty, at the rate of Rs 60 per tonne, and other Government expenses.
The bidders were given sufficient time for depositing the requisite earnest money (EMD) along with other documents, said the spokesperson, adding that the reserve price was fixed depending upon the material available in each mine, and varied between Rs 6 lakhs and Rs 9 crore.
The bidders were also advised to check the areas to be auctioned and to ascertain, at their level, whether the mines were suitable for operations, he added.
Spokesperson further stated that the e-auction dates, details of mines etc were publicised widely through advertisements in newspapers, official gazette and through departmental website, which led around 1,026 bidders applying for this auction, underlining the total transparency and fairness with which the process was conducted.
During the process, it was observed that for eight mines, no EMD was received and those could be not put to auction. For 18 mines, only one bidder deposited EMD and for other mines, multiple bidders ranging from two to 32, deposited EMD.
For the 18 mines in which a single bidder deposited EMD, the total quantity was 79.78 lakh tonnes.
Considering their large capacities, it was decided after due deliberation to allow the sole bidders to bid for these 18 mines. However out of these 18 mines, not a single bid was finally received for the two Hoshiarpur mines during the e-auction, leaving 16 mines with H1 bidder.
Spokesperson said out of 94 mines, no bid was received for five mines, including two said mines of single bidders.
He said these e-auctions were expected to boost supply of material, resulting in stability of demand and pricing pressure relief to the consumers, with significant revenue earnings for the government.
The Government will release another 70 lakh tonnes of mines through auction in the second week of June, to further ease the demand-supply pressure, which is also expected to stabilise significantly once the monsoon ends and operations begin full steam, said the spokesperson, adding that this will lead to drastic decline in the price of sand in the State.